Global Volcanism Program

The Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) documents Earth's volcanoes and their eruptive history during the Quaternary Period of Earth's geologic history, with particular emphasis on volcanic activity during the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years).

Smithsonian reporting on current volcanic activity dates back to 1968, with the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena (CSLP).

The GVP is housed in the Department of Mineral Sciences, part of the National Museum of Natural History, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. During the early stages of an eruption, the GVP acts as a clearing house of reports, data, and imagery which are accumulated from a global network of contributors.

Notices of volcanic activity posted on the report website are preliminary and subject to change as events are studied in more detail.

In recent years, the database has been extended to include links to digital imagery, and physical samples that are archived in the Smithsonian Institution Collections.