NCEI maintains a database of over 1,500 volcano locations obtained from the Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program, Volcanoes of the World publication. The database includes information on the volcano name, location, elevation, volcano type, date of the last known eruption, and the certainty of Holocene volcanism.

The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) is housed in the Department of Mineral Sciences, National Museum of Natural History, in Washington D.C. We are devoted to a better understanding of Earth's active volcanoes and their eruptions during the last 10,000 years.

The mission of GVP is to document, understand, and disseminate information about global volcanic activity. We do this through four core functions: reporting, archiving, research, and outreach. The data systems that lie at our core have been in development since 1968 when GVP began documenting the eruptive histories of volcanoes.

Reporting. GVP is unique in its documentation of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years. During the early stages of an eruption anywhere in the world we act as a clearinghouse of reports, data, and imagery. Reports are released in two formats. The Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report provides timely information vetted by GVP staff about current eruptions. The Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network provides comprehensive reporting on recent eruptions on a longer time horizon to allow incorporation of peer-reviewed literature and observatory reports.

Archiving. Complementing our effort toward reporting of current eruptive activity is our database of volcanoes and eruptions that documents the last 10,000 years of Earth's volcanism. These databases and interpretations based on them were published in three editions of the book "Volcanoes of the World".

Research. GVP researchers are curators in the Department of Mineral Sciences and maintain active research programs on volcanic products, processes, and the deep Earth that is the ultimate source of volcanism.

Outreach. This website presents more than 7,000 reports on volcanic activity, provides access to the baseline data and eruptive histories of Holocene volcanoes, and makes available other resources to our international partners, scientists, civil-authorities, and the public.

The Global Volcanism Program relies on an international network of collaborating individuals, programs and organizations, many of which are listed below:

United States Geological Survey Volcano Hazards Program (USA). The Volcano Hazards Program monitors active and potentially active volcanoes, assesses their hazards, responds to volcanic crises, and conducts research on volcanoes. The Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP) (with the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance) works to reduce fatalities and economic losses in countries experiencing a volcano emergency.

Global Volcano Model (Bristol University and the British Geological Survey, UK). GVM is a growing international network that aims to create a sustainable, accessible information platform on volcanic hazard and risk.

WOVOdat (Earth Observatory of Singapore). A collective record of volcano monitoring, worldwide - brought to you by the WOVO (World Organization of Volcano Observatories).

Integrated Earth Data Applications (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, USA). A community-based data facility to support, sustain, and advance the geosciences by providing data services for observational solid earth data from the Ocean, Earth, and Polar Sciences.

VHub (The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA). An online resource for collaboration in volcanology research and risk mitigation.

International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI). IAVCEI represents the primary international focus for: (1) research in volcanology, (2) efforts to mitigate volcanic disasters, and (3) research into closely related disciplines, such as igneous geochemistry and petrology, geochronology, volcanogenic mineral deposits, and the physics of the generation and ascent of magmas in the upper mantle and crust. IAVCEI has charged GVP with providing the official names and unique identifier numbers for the world's volcanoes.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has established nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers tasked with monitoring Volcanic Ash plumes within their assigned airspace.

The Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database is a global listing of over 600 eruptions from 4360 BC to the present. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake. The database provides information on the latitude, longitude, elevation, type of volcano, last known eruption, VEI index, and socio-economic data such as the total number of casualties, injuries, houses destroyed, and houses damaged, and $ dollage damage estimates. References, political geography, and additional comments are also provided for each eruption. If the eruption was associated with a tsunami or significant earthquake, it is flagged and linked to the related database. For a complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years, please see Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP).

Volcanoes are symbolized based off of volcano type but can be changed based on the attributes. Click on a volcano to open a table that includes a URL specific to each volcano.

The Significant Volcanic Eruptions Database is a global listing of over 600 eruptions from 4360 BC to the present. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or greater, generated a tsunami, or was associated with a significant earthquake. The database provides information on the latitude, longitude, elevation, type of volcano, last known eruption, VEI index, and socio-economic data such as the total number of casualties, injuries, houses destroyed, and houses damaged, and $ dollage damage estimates. References, political geography, and additional comments are also provided for each eruption. If the eruption was associated with a tsunami or significant earthquake, it is flagged and linked to the related database. For a complete list of current and past activity for all volcanoes on the planet active during the last 10,000 years, please see Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP).

The statistic presents the death toll in individual countries due to the world's major volcanic eruptions from 1900 to 2016*. The volcanic eruption in Cameroon on August 24, 1986 claimed a total of 1,746 deaths. Volcanic eruptions A volcanic eruption is defined as a discharge of lava and gas from a volcanic vent or fissure. Volcanoes spew hot, dangerous gases, ash, lava, and rock that are powerfully destructive. The most common consequences of this are population movements, economic loss, affected people and deaths.

Agriculture-based economies are most affected by volcanic eruption. It is unpredictable how much affected an agriculture-based economy will be in a volcanic eruption. The economic loss caused by major volcanic eruptions varies from 1,000 million U.S. during the volcanic eruption in Colombia, November 13, 1995, to 80 million U.S. dollar caused by the volcanic eruption in Japan in 1945.

It is a big tragedy when people are affected by natural disasters. 1,036,065 affected people were counted during the volcanic eruption in the Philippines in June 9, 1991. Most of the states which know about the volcanic activities in their countries have an evacuation plan trying to safe peoples lives. In some cases it is difficult for the people to follow authorities’ instructions caused by unforeseen situations and it comes to high numbers of casualties like in the volcanic eruption in Ecuador in August 14, 2006.

According to the Wold Risk Index from 2013, Qatar, with an index value of 0.1, was the safest country in the world. This index is a complex interplay of natural hazards and social, political and environmental factors.

Active volcanoes located outside of the United States based on the Smithsonian / USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report (http://volcano.si.edu/reports_weekly.cfm). IGEMS reads the current source data and updates the layer every Wednesday.

This layer is a component of Interior Geospatial Emergency Management System (IGEMS) Natural Hazards.

This map presents the geospatial locations and additional information for current natural hazards events including earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. This map is part of the Interior Geospatial Emergency Management System (IGEMS) and is supported by the DOI Office of Emergency Management. This map contains data from a variety of public data sources, including non-DOI data, and information about each of these data providers, including specific data source and update frequency is available at: http://igems.doi.gov.

© DOI Office of Emergency Management

Contains Excel data files used to quantifiably rank the geothermal potential of each of the young volcanic centers of the Cascade and Aleutian Arcs using world power production volcanic centers as benchmarks. Also contains shapefiles used in play fairway analysis with power plant, volcano, geochemistry and structural data.

The Smithsonian's "Eruptions, Earthquakes, & Emissions" web application (or "E3") is a time-lapse animation of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes since 1960. It also shows volcanic gas emissions (sulfur dioxide, SO2) since 1978 — the first year satellites were available to provide global monitoring of SO2. The eruption data are drawn from the Volcanoes of the World (VOTW) database maintained by the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program (GVP). The earthquake data are pulled from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earthquake Catalog. Sulfur-dioxide emissions data incorporated into the VOTW for use here originate in NASA's Multi-Satellite Volcanic Sulfur Dioxide L4 Long-Term Global Database. Please properly credit and cite any use of GVP eruption and volcano data, which are available via a download button within the app, through webservices, or through options under the Database tab above. A citation for the E3 app is given below.Clicking the image will open this web application in a new tab.Citation (example for today)Global Volcanism Program, 2016. Eruptions, Earthquakes & Emissions, v. 1.0 (internet application). Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 19 Oct 2018 (https://volcano.si.edu/E3/).Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)?VEI is the "Richter Scale" of volcanic eruptions. Assigning a VEI is not an automated process, but involves assessing factors such as the volume of tephra (volcanic ash or other ejected material) erupted, the height the ash plume reaches above the summit or altitude into the atmosphere, and the type of eruption (Newhall and Self, 1982). VEIs range from 1 (small eruption) to 8 (the largest eruptions in Earth's entire history).What about eruptions before 1960?For information about volcanic eruptions before 1960, explore the GVP website, where we catalog eruption information going back more than 10,000 years. This E3 app only displays eruptions starting in 1960 because the catalog is much more complete after that date. For most eruptions before the 20th century we rely on the geologic record more than historical first-hand accounts — and the geologic record is inherently incomplete (due to erosion) and not fully documented.What are "SO2 emissions" and what do the different circle sizes mean?The E3 app displays emissions of sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) from erupting volcanoes, including the mass in kilotons. Even though water vapor (steam) and carbon dioxide gas (see more about CO2 below) are much more abundant volcanic gases, SO2is the easiest to detect using satellite-based instruments, allowing us to obtain a global view. There is no universally accepted "magnitude" scale for emissions; the groupings presented here were chosen to best graphically present the relative volumes based on available data.What am I seeing when I click on an SO2 emission event?You are seeing a time-lapse movie of satellite measurements of SO2 associated with a particular emission event. These SO2 clouds, or plumes, are blown by winds and can circle the globe in about a week. As plumes travel, they mix with the air, becoming more dilute until eventually the concentration of SO2 falls below the detection limit of satellites. Earth's entire atmosphere derives from outgassing of the planet — in fact, the air you breathe was once volcanic gas, and some of it might have erupted very recently!Why are there no SO2 emissions before 1978?E3 shows volcanic gas emissions captured from satellite-based instruments, which were first deployed in 1978. NASA launched the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) in 1978, which provided the first space-borne observations of volcanic gas emissions. Numerous satellites capable of measuring volcanic gases are now in orbit.Why don't you include H2O and CO2 emissions?The most abundant gases expelled during a volcanic eruption are water vapor (H2O in the form of steam) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is typically the third most abundant gas. Hydrogen gas, carbon monoxide and other carbon species, hydrogen halides, and noble gases typically comprise a very small percentage of volcanic gas emissions. So why can't we show H2O and CO2 in the E3 app? Earth's atmosphere has such high background concentrations of H2O and CO2 that satellites cannot easily detect a volcano's signal over this background "noise." Atmospheric SO2 concentrations, however, are very low. Therefore volcanic emissions of SO2 stand out and are more easily detected by satellites. Scientists are just beginning to have reliable measurements of volcanic carbon dioxide emissions because new satellites dedicated to monitoring CO2 have either recently been launched or have launches planned for the coming decade.How much carbon is emitted by volcanoes?We don't really know. CO2, carbon dioxide, is the dominant form of carbon in most volcanic eruptions, and can be the dominant gas emitted from volcanoes. Humans release more than 100 times more CO2 to the atmosphere than volcanoes (Gerlach, 2011) through activities like burning fossil fuels. Because of this, the background levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have risen to levels that are so high (greater than 400 parts per million, or 0.04%) that satellites cannot easily detect the CO2 from volcanic eruptions. Scientists are able to estimate the amount of carbon flowing from Earth's interior to exterior (the flux) by measuring carbon emissions directly at volcanic vents and by measuring the carbon dissolved in volcanic rocks. Scientific teams in the Deep Carbon Observatory (one of the supporters of E3) are working to quantify the flux of carbon from Earth's interior to exterior.Do volcanic emissions cause global warming?No, not in modern times. The dominant effect of volcanic eruptions is to cool the planet in the short term. This is because sulfur emissions create aerosols that block the sun's incoming rays temporarily. While volcanoes do emit powerful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, they do so at a rate that is likely 100 times less than humans (Gerlach, 2011). Prior to human activity in the Holocene (approximately the last 10,000 years), volcanic gas emissions did play a large role in modulating Earth's climate.Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes seem to occur in the same location. Why?Eruptions and earthquakes occur at Earth's plate boundaries — places where Earth's tectonic plates converge, diverge, or slip past one another. The forces operating at these plate boundaries cause both earthquakes and eruptions. For example, the Pacific "Ring of Fire" describes the plate boundaries that surround the Pacific basin. Around most of the Pacific Rim, the seafloor (Earth's oceanic crust) is "subducting" beneath the continents. This means that the seafloor is being dragged down into Earth's interior. You might think of this as Earth's way of recycling! In this process, ocean water is released to Earth's solid rocky mantle, melting the mantle rock and generating magma that erupts through volcanoes on the continents where the plates converge. In contrast, mid-ocean ridges, chains of seafloor volcanoes, define divergent plate boundaries. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge that runs from Iceland to the Antarctic in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is one example of a divergent plate boundary. Earth's crust is torn apart at the ridge, as North and South America move away from Europe and Africa. New lava erupts to fill the gap. This lava cools, creating new ocean crust. All these episodes where solid rock collides or is torn apart generate earthquakes. And boom! You have co-located eruptions and earthquakes. To learn more about plate margins using E3, watch this video.Is this the first time eruptions, emissions, and earthquakes have been animated on a map?E3 is a successor to the program Seismic/Eruption developed by Alan Jones (Binghamton University). That program was one of the first to show the global occurrence of earthquakes (USGS data) and eruptions (GVP data) through space and time with animations and sound. The program ran in the Smithsonian's Geology, Gems, and Minerals Hall from 1997 to 2016, and was also available on the "Earthquakes and Eruptions" CD-ROM. E3 builds upon Seismic/Eruption with the addition of emissions data and automated data updates.How many eruptions and emissions are shown, and from how many volcanoes?The application is currently showing 2,065 eruptions from 334 volcanoes. It is also showing 360 emission activity periods from 118 different volcanoes. In addition, there are 67 animations available showing the movement of SO2 clouds from 44 volcanoes.How often do you update the data represented in the web application?The application checks for updates once a week. Earthquake data, being instrumentally recorded, is typically very current. Eruption data, which relies on observational reports and analysis by GVP staff, is generally updated every few months; however, known ongoing eruptions will continue through the most recent update check. Emissions data is collected by satellite instruments and also must be processed by scientists, so updates will be provided as soon as they are available following an event, on the schedule with eruption updates.Is my computer system/browser supported? Something isn't working right.To run the map, your computer and browser must support WebGL. For more information on WebGL, please visit https://get.webgl.org to test if it should work.Source Obtained from http://volcano.si.edu/E3/

This statistic displays the largest volcanic eruptions in history based on the volume tephra that was erupted. About 30 million years ago, the Wha Wha Springs eruption produced more than 5500 cubic kilometers of ejecta in a week.

Volcanoes are symbolized based off of volcano type but can be changed based on the attributes. Click on a volcano to open a table that includes a URL specific to each volcano.

The statistic shows the economic damage caused by major volcanic eruptions in the period from 1900 to 2016*. The volcanic eruption on September 09, 1983 in Indonesia caused a loss of approximately 149.69 million U.S. dollars.

This map layer includes Holocene volcanoes, which are those thought to be active in the last 10,000 years, which are within an extended area of the northern hemisphere centered on the United States. The data are a subset of data available from the Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution at http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/summary.cfm. This file is a replacement for the April 2004 map layer. These data are intended for geographic display and analysis at the national level, and for large regional areas. The data should be displayed and analyzed at scales appropriate for 1:2,000,000-scale data. Further information on the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution is available at http://www.volcano.si.edu/The International Association for Volcanology and Chemistry of Earth's Interior (IAVCEI), The World Organization of Volcano Observatories (WOVO), and the Global Volcano Model (GVM) have sanctioned the Global Volcanism Program (GVP) to assign official names and numbers to the world's volcanoes. The purpose of the numbers is to prevent ambiguity regarding the name and location of volcanoes that may have non-unique names, or that are known by multiple names.The original VNums were based on a system developed in the 1950's for the IAVCEI Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World (CAVW). GVP policy had been to embed significant geographical, historical, and age information in the numbers. As a result GVP often changed VNums, most frequently to accommodate newly recognized volcanoes in a particular geographical region, which over time undermined the goal of preventing ambiguity.After moving VOTW to a new database platform, we developed a new VNum system. During this process GVP staff took into account the needs of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and other stakeholders to have numbers compatible with modern computing systems. Holocene, Pleistocene, and Tertiary volcanoes all fall under the new unified numbering system, allowing interoperability between VOTW and new databases under development globally (e.g. WOVOdat, LaMEVE). Letters and characters (hyphens and equals signs) have been eliminated. Secondary numbers have been added for subfeatures associated with each volcano. None of the new numbers start with 0 or 1 to avoid confusion with the legacy system. While a connection remains to the older system, the geographic link to CAVW regions and subregions is no longer mandatory.We feel that this change is in the best long-term interest of the community.

The biggest volcano on Earth is the Mauna Loa in Hawaii, United States at 9,170 feet meters. The Mauna Loa is an active shield volcano and its lava eruptions are silica-poor and very fluid. The only volcano larger than the Mauna Loa is the Tamu Massif, located under water, and is now extinct.

Global Volcano Total Economic Loss Risk Deciles is a 2.5 minute grid of global volcano total economic loss risks. First, subnational distributions of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are computed using a two-fold process. Where applicable, the proportional contribution of subnational Units are determined following the methodology of Sachs et al. (2003) and these proportions are used against World Bank Development Indicators to determine a GDP value for the subnational Unit. Once a national GDP has been spatially stratified into the smallest administrative Units available, it is further distributed based upon Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3) population distributions. A per capita contribution value is determined for each Unit, and this value is multiplied by the population per grid cell. Once the GDP has been determined on a per grid cell basis, then the spatially variable loss rate as derived from EM-DAT historical records is used to determine the total economic loss posed to a grid cell by volcano hazards. The final surface does not present absolute values of total economic loss, but rather a relative decile (1-10) ranking of grid cells based upon the calculated economic loss risks. This data set is the result of collaboration among the Columbia University Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

Global Volcano Hazard Frequency and Distribution is a 2.5 minute gridded data set based upon the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) Volcano Database spanning the period of 79 through 2000. This database includes nearly 4,000 volcanic events categorized as moderate or above (values 2 through 8) according to the Volcano Explosivity Index (VEI). Most volcanoes are georeferenced to the nearest tenth or hundredth of a degree with a few to the nearest thousandth of a degree. To produce the final output, the frequency of a volcanic hazard is computed for each grid cell, with the data set consequently being classified into deciles (10 classes of approximately equal number of grid cells). The higher the grid cell value in the final output, the higher the relative frequency of hazard posed by volcanoes. This data set is the result of collaboration among the Columbia University Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR) and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

Global Volcano Mortality Risks and Distribution is a 2.5 minute grid representing global volcano mortality risks. The data set was constructed using historical hazard-specific mortality loss data from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) maintained by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), subnational year 2000 population estimates from Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3), and volcano hazard data from the Global Volcano Hazard Frequency and Distribution data set. Estimates were made as to the mortality numbers associated with volcano hazard. In turn, these mortality estimates were classified into deciles, 10 class of an approximately equal number of grid cells of increasing mortality risk. This data set is the result of collaboration among the Columbia University Center for Hazards and Risk Research (CHRR), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

The Significant Volcanic Eruption Database is a global listing of over 500 significant eruptions which includes information on the latitude, longitude, elevation, type of volcano, and last known eruption. A significant eruption is classified as one that meets at least one of the following criteria: caused fatalities, caused moderate damage (approximately $1 million or more), with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 6 or larger, caused a tsunami, or was associated with a major earthquake.

Data mined from the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center. The 1571 volcanoe entries were compared to the simplified volcanic types listed in common middle school text books. All volcanoes were reassigned to these classification. Original classifications are still included in the database and listed at: http://www.volcano.si.edu/ as well as the NOAA site.

In 2023, there were about ****** displacements worldwide due to volcanic activity, an increase of more than double compared to the previous year. 2021 was a particularly bad year, with approximately ******* people displaced due to volcanic activity around the world. That year, the eruption of Volcano Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the disaster that displaced the most people that year.