Microproduct data guidebeginner

Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program

Holocene volcano locations and eruption records for building global volcanic activity maps and nearby-hazard lookup tools.

Start the guide Open official source

At a glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.02 GB
Formats
Excel, CSV, JSON
Access
Download or API
API key
Not required
Provider
Smithsonian Institution
Updates
Weekly
Data terms
Smithsonian GVP data-use and citation guidance

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

GVP publishes a Holocene volcano list with coordinates, country, and primary volcano type. Start with one country. Presence in the Holocene list is not an eruption nowcast, and eruption records are compiled from heterogeneous historical sources.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • An internet connection
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Open the GVP website and locate the volcano list download or web service.
  2. 2.Retrieve Holocene volcanoes and keep volcano number, name, country, and coordinates.
  3. 3.Cite Smithsonian GVP when presenting a map or list.
Open official source
3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install pandas requests

import pandas as pd
import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://volcano.si.edu/geoserver/GVP-VOTW/ows",
    params={
        "service": "WFS",
        "version": "1.0.0",
        "request": "GetFeature",
        "typeName": "GVP-VOTW:Smithsonian_VOTW_Holocene_Volcanoes",
        "outputFormat": "application/json",
        "CQL_FILTER": "Country='Iceland'",
    },
    timeout=60,
)
response.raise_for_status()
volcanoes = pd.json_normalize(response.json()["features"])
print(volcanoes.head())
4

Test a useful signal

Map Iceland's Holocene volcanoes

Test whether GVP coordinates can power a bounded volcanic-place lookup.

  1. 01Keep volcano name, volcano number, and coordinates from the Iceland extract.
  2. 02Plot the points and list names missing coordinates.
  3. 03Explain that the Holocene catalog is not a live eruption feed and that historical eruption dates vary in quality.

Dataset details

Smithsonian Institution is an academic source. Last verified 2026-08-18. Temporal coverage: Holocene volcanoes and historical eruption records.

Theme

Environment & Hazards

Domains

Natural HazardsEarth ScienceEmergency Management

Data types

GeospatialEvent DataRegistry Data

Tasks

Hazard MappingEruption MonitoringPlace Lookup

Geography

Global

Formats

ExcelCSVJSON

Provider

Smithsonian Institution

Data terms

Smithsonian GVP data-use and citation guidance