Paricutín volcano in Mexico makes it on most lists just for the sheer bizarreness of its history. It was a cornfield in 1943 and then, in the span of a year, grew to a height of 11,475 feet. By the time the volcano’s eruptions ceased in 1952, its peak measured a whopping 9,210 feet. The villages around it are buried in lava, and only a church bell tower juts out from the rock.
