Changbaishan
China and North Korea · Stratovolcano · 41.98, 128.08 · volcano number 305060
Nothing above background is currently reported at this system. For a volcano outside the United States and Japan that means only that it is not in the Smithsonian's weekly report, not that it is quiet.
What this system is
| Type | Stratovolcano |
|---|---|
| Country | China and North Korea |
| Position | 41.98, 128.08 |
| Largest known eruption | VEI 7, about 946 |
| Why it is on this list | vei7 holocene |
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold one significant eruption at or within 40 km of this volcano since 946.
The most recent entry is the 946 VEI 7 eruption (Changbaishan, China-E).
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 946 | VEI 7 eruption | Changbaishan, China-E | - |
A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
What this rests on
The eruption of 946 CE released roughly 100 to 120 km3 of tephra and formed the caldera that holds Heaven Lake, among the largest eruptions anywhere in the last five thousand years.
That sentence is ours. A fuller account, with its own citations, is where to check it. It was a quotation from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program until September 2026, when their terms stopped being compatible with a site carrying advertising.
Other systems tracked
Where these numbers come from
National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): NCEI/WDS Global Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. doi:10.7289/V5JW8BSH Licence: NOAA NCEI: access to this dataset is unrestricted (US federal work, public domain). Positions and eruption records come from that database; the sentence above is ours. Alert levels come from the publishing observatory.