The world’s most active volcanoes - in photos

Piton de la Fournaise, La Reunion

With three eruptions in the past decade, the volcano merits the French name ‘peak of the furnace’

A series of eruptions of the volcanic Kilaeau peak has caused chaos on Hawaii’s Big Island, with locals evacuated from the path of streaming lava

Ol Doinyo Lengai, a Masai name meaning Mountain of God, is part of the volcanic system of the Great Rift Valley in Eastern Africa

Mount Yasur, Vanuatu

Mount Yasur is the most active of the nine volcanoes which rise up from the small Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, erupting almost continuously since it was first recorded by Captain Cook in 1774

Sakurajima’s frequent eruptions are usually small-scale, but the volcano holds a fearsome force - as shown by its geography. Formerly an island, a particularly large lava flow in 1914 connected it to the nearby coastline

Pacaya, Guatemala

Mount Merapi, Indonesia

Clouds of ash spews out of Mount Merapi during major eruption in 2010 which killed more than 350 people and displaced hundreds of thousands

Etna, Italy

Europe's biggest active volcano, Etna looms over the city of Catania, in eastern Sicily. Its continuous activity has not prevented the volcano from becoming a major tourist attraction, boasting a narrow-gauge railway and two ski resorts

One of the few volcanoes on the world that have an almost persistent lava lake, Erta Ale sits in the middle of an arid desert in the Afar region