Live on the globe now: 1,215 tracked
This layer plots roughly 1,400 Holocene volcanoes — those known to have been active within about the last 12,000 years — straight from the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP), its "Volcanoes of the World" reference catalog. Each dot sits at the volcano's mapped summit position, tracing the familiar arcs of the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the East African Rift, the Mediterranean and the mid-ocean ridges.
Click any volcano to inspect what the GVP records for it: name, country and region, primary volcano type (stratovolcano, shield, caldera, cinder cone and so on), summit elevation, major rock type, tectonic setting, the year of its most recent confirmed eruption, and a short geological summary. Many entries also carry a field photo with its original credit.
Unlike the live eruption and thermal-anomaly layers, this is a near-static scientific catalog rather than a real-time event feed — we refresh it from the GVP web service about once a day, so it changes only when the Smithsonian updates the underlying database. It is one of around 29 layers you can solo or stack on the live overwatch.earth globe, and it pairs naturally with the active-eruption and earthquake layers to see today's activity against the full population of the world's volcanoes.
Data source: Smithsonian GVP
From the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program (GVP) and its 'Volcanoes of the World' database, served via the GVP's public WFS feed at volcano.si.edu. It is the standard scientific reference catalog of the world's volcanoes.
The Holocene is the current geological epoch, covering roughly the last 12,000 years. A Holocene volcano is one with evidence of eruptive activity in that window — essentially the set of volcanoes considered potentially active, even if they haven't erupted recently.
No. This is a reference catalog of known volcanoes, not a real-time alert feed. We refresh it from the GVP service about once a day, and it only changes when the Smithsonian updates its database. For ongoing activity, use it alongside the live eruption and earthquake layers.
The GVP details: volcano type, country and region, summit elevation, major rock type, tectonic setting, the most recent confirmed eruption year, and a geological summary. Many volcanoes also include a photo with its credit, plus a link to the full GVP profile.