The Global Volcanism Program, based at the Smithsonian Institution, collects, summarizes, and catalogs information about volcanic eruptions that have occurred over the past 10,000 years. The mission of GVP is to understand global patterns in volcanism in space and time and to facilitate the research and monitoring efforts of other scientists, observatories, and government agencies. GVP collaborates with volcano observers and researchers in many parts of the world to document eruptions.

The core of GVP is composed of the “Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network” (BGVN; lengthy reports describing activity, impacts, monitoring, and associated research at volcanoes), the Weekly Report (a joint effort of the USGS and Smithsonian, summarizing global volcanic activity each week), and the Volcanoes of the World Database (VOTW; a comprehensive history of physical characteristics of Holocene eruptions). These materials are either currently available online (BGVN and Weekly Reports) or will be available in searchable format in mid-late 2012 (VOTW). These efforts have led to several ancillary publications, including the book “Volcanoes of the World, 3rd edition” (Siebert et al, 2010).

www.volcano.si.edu