The volcanism of the Northern Andes is characterized by an intense Plio-Quaternary activity, whose onshore deposits have covered older products associated with the early development of the arc. To improve our knowledge of the largest explosive eruptions that occurred in the Northern Andean arc since the Miocene, we analyzed tephra layers (morphology, mineralogy, major-trace element contents, Sr-Pb isotopy, 14C ages) recorded in marine sediments off Ecuador and Colombia. Along the margin, tephra recorded within shallow sediments were emitted during the Holocene. Identifying the volcanic source of distal tephra is challenging due to the large number of active volcanoes, and to size-dependent fractionation during atmospheric transport that modifies the mineral, chemical and even isotope composition of transported and settled tephra. We therefore developed a new isotopic method based on Pb isotopy, demonstrating that proximal and distal products define a single isotopic line in the 208Pb/206Pb-207Pb/206Pb space, whose equation is specific to each eruptive center. We then show that these isotopic lines are robust fingerprints of volcanic sources that do not depend on the age, mineral assemblage, and nature of the emitted products. Resulting land-sea correlations show that products of at least 12 explosive eruptions reached the Pacific Ocean since 8 kyr, and that such major events could have a major impact on current populations and infrastructures. In deep-sea sediments of the Panamá Basin, we identified 27 tephra layers emitted since the Early Pliocene. The long-term evolution of the geochemical composition of magmas, together with the recurrence of explosive eruptions, allow us to discuss the relationship between the regional geodynamics (i.e., subduction of a young aseismic ridge, slab morphology, crustal fault activity) and volcanic activity. In addition, we identified for the first time several Pleistocene rhyolitic tephra layers related to the activity of the Galápagos hotpot, revealing recent oceanic ridge-hotspot interaction.