volcanos on the world

the biggest volcano on earth?
The largest volcano in the world is Mauna Loa. It has a volume of about 40,000 cubic kilometers, and an above-sea level area of 5125 square kilometers (these values come from an article by Jack Lockwood and Peter Lipman in U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper #1350, pages 509-535).

the smallest volcano on earth?
There are a number of small volcanoes that are members of what volcanologists call "monogenetic fields". These are areas where eruptions are infrequent and spread over a big area. Therefore instead of piling material up into a big volcano you end up with a bunch of little lava flows, cinder cones, tuff cones, domes, and other vents that are spread out over a big area. If you consider each one to be a separate "volcano" then they are all pretty small. If, however, you consider the whole thing to be a single volcanic "system", then they are just parts of this. The most famous vent in a monogenetic field is Paricutin, which is part of the Michoachan-Guanahuato field in SW Mexico. Paricutin is mainly famous because it formed recently (in 1943), and was studied intensively. By the way, the "monogenetic" part of the name means that each vent only erupts once

2007-03-01 08:57:03 補充：
By the way, Mauna Loa is at Hawaii. More info at the following website:http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/maunaloa/