The launch of a new GVP website is scheduled for Monday, May 20, 2013.
This section provides answers to commonly asked questions about Holocene volcanoes and their eruptions based on data from Volcanoes of the World.
How many active volcanoes are there in the world?
What is the world's highest volcano?
How long does an eruption last?
Has volcanic activity been increasing?
Why doesn't the Smithsonian post hazard alert levels for all volcanoes?
How do scientists forecast volcanic eruptions?
General use should be attributed to the Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program. For formal scientific citation of these answers, please use the following:
Simkin T, Siebert L (2002-). Global Volcanism FAQs. Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program Digital Information Series, GVP-5 (http://www.volcano.si.edu/education/questions/).
The dash after the year indicates a non-static document that is updated in subsequent years. When citing website documents such as this, adding the access date at the end of the citation provides chronological context for the citation.
Simkin T, Siebert L, 1984. Explosive eruptions in space and time: durations, intervals, and a comparison of the world's active volcanic belts, in: Explosive volcanism: inception, evolution, and hazards, National Academy of Sciences Press, Washington, DC, p. 110-121.
Simkin T, 1993. Terrestrial Volcanism in Space and Time. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 21:427-52
Simkin T, Siebert L, 1999. Earth's Volcanoes and Eruptions: an Overview. in: Encyclopedia of Volcanoes, Academic Press, p. 249-261.
Simkin T, Siebert L, Blong R, 2001. Volcano Fatalities - Lessons from the Historical Record. Science, 291:255.