Volcanoes

1,608 volcanoes · 900 significant eruptions since 4360 BC

Every volcano in NOAA’s record, with its type, elevation and last known eruption; every significant eruption back to antiquity, with its explosivity, deaths and damage; and the USGS alert level on every US volcano, as it stands now.

Every volcano on the map

1,608 volcanoes, colored by when each last erupted. A US volcano above normal is drawn larger, in its USGS aviation color. Tap one to open it.

  • Since 1964
  • 1900 to 1963
  • 1800s
  • AD 1 to 1799
  • Before AD 1, or undated

Open the live map with volcanic ash advisories

US volcanoes above normal now

The alert level and aviation color code each USGS volcano observatory has set, read 16:08 UTC.

The record

Volcanoes
1,608
Significant eruptions
900
Deaths counted
335,740
Earliest eruption
4360 BC

Where the literature gives no number, NCEI records a description on a scale of 1 to 4, printed here in its words. Damage is in millions of US dollars of the year of the event, not adjusted for inflation.

The deadliest eruptions

Deaths as NCEI counts them, with the tsunamis and mudflows the eruptions set off.

The largest eruptions

Every significant eruption of Volcanic Explosivity Index 5 or more.

Eruptions by century

Every significant eruption.

What this means

Alert levels

The USGS sets two ratings for each monitored volcano. The volcano alert level is for people on the ground:

Normal
The volcano is in its typical background, non-eruptive state.
Advisory
Elevated unrest above the known background level, or activity decreasing after an eruption.
Watch
Heightened or escalating unrest with a greater chance of eruption, or a minor eruption under way.
Warning
A hazardous eruption is imminent, under way or suspected.

The aviation color code is for aircraft, which ash can bring down:

Green
Non-eruptive background state.
Yellow
Signs of elevated unrest above the known background level.
Orange
Heightened unrest with a greater chance of eruption, or an eruption under way with no or minor ash emission.
Red
An eruption is imminent with significant ash likely, or under way with significant ash emission.

The Volcanic Explosivity Index

VEIDescriptionEruption columnHow oftenExample
0Non-explosiveunder 100 mdailyKilauea
1Small100 m to 1 kmdailyStromboli
2Moderate1 to 5 kmweeklyGaleras, 1992
3Moderate to large3 to 15 kmyearlyRuiz, 1985
4Large10 to 25 kmtens of yearsGalunggung, 1982
5Very largeover 25 kmhundreds of yearsMount St. Helens
6Paroxysmalover 25 kmhundreds of yearsKrakatau, 1883
7Colossalover 25 kmthousands of yearsTambora, 1815
8Colossalover 25 kmtens of thousands of yearsYellowstone, 2 million years ago

What this record is

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information keep a database of significant eruptions: those that caused deaths or damage of about a million dollars or more, reached an explosivity index of 6 or larger, or set off a tsunami or a major earthquake. It is compiled from the scientific and historical literature and reaches back to antiquity; the oldest records are the least certain, and NCEI’s comments say so where it matters.

The volcanoes are NCEI’s volcano locations, which follow the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program: its volcano number, name, type and the era of the last known eruption. A volcano with no significant eruption on record may still be active; the list of eruptions here is of the significant ones, not all.

By country

Volcanoes in each country.

Sources

Volcanoes and significant eruptions from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Hazard Database, cited as NCEI/WDS, doi:10.7289/V5PN93H7. Public domain. Read 2026-09-24. Alert levels, color codes and notices from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program and its observatories, public domain. Volcano numbers are the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program’s.