Library Guides: Geology: Volcanoes

Volcanoes

Volcanoes are openings in the Earth's crust through which magma, ash and volcanic gases erupt. The term can also be used to refer to the landform formed by an eruption. The term can also be used for small conical formations of mud (mud volcanoes), which form in volcanic areas or places that are under tectonic stress. Volcanoes occur along the Earth's plate boundaries in subduction and rift zones and in the middle of plates over hotspots. The following resources provide information about volcanoes throughout the world.

Global Volcanism Program
The Global Volcanism Program is part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History. Their web site provides information on volcano names, photos and videos, weekly and monthly reports on volcanic activity (not real time), and an online map that allows users to zoom into a part of the world and link to a list of volcano names in that region. The site also provides data with the name, location and type of volcano for the entire world in an Excel spreadsheet and as a Google Earth kmz file.
USGS Volcano Hazards Program (VHP)
This site, developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, provides information on the USGS Volcano Hazards Program, including alerts and updates on volcanoes in the United States, links to educational resources on volcanoes, images of volcanoes (including webcams of live volcanoes), information on volcano hazards and links to volcano observatories in the United States. Users can link to volcano information and web cams from an interactive map or through the individual observatories.
Earth - Ocean Interactions
NOAA's Earth-Ocean Interactions program, which is a project of the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, studies hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor and their ecology. The site provides information about hydrothermal vents, vent research and images, videos of vents and information on vent activity throughout the world.