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Welcome to Cool Stuff Daily.

I'm Reggie Rizzou.

Today we're going to go deep, like 18 miles deep, to answer a deceptively simple question.

What is the largest volcano on Earth?

We'll take a look at multiple answers to that question and share a little extra information about volcanoes.

So the largest volcano on Earth isn't on land.

It's hidden beneath the Pacific Ocean, around 1,600 kilometers east of Japan.

Tamu Massif covers a jaw-dropping 310,000 square kilometers.

That's nearly twice the size of Washington State and roughly the size of Poland. Its roots stretch 30 kilometers or about 18 miles down into Earth's crust. And the entire

summit sits more than 2,000 meters or 6,500 feet below sea level. It formed around 145 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs, and has been extinct

for millions of years.

When scientists confirmed in 2013 that this was one single massive volcano, not multiple

ones fused together, it officially earned the title of largest single

volcano on Earth by mass and footprint.

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