Earth

Ten thousand years of volcanic eruptions

Every eruption in the Smithsonian's Holocene record — 11,089 of them — on one map, sized and coloured by explosivity. Press play to run through deep time: mostly gentle lava fields, plus the handful of cataclysms that darkened whole skies. Tap or hover any dot.

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Data & source

Data: Smithsonian Institution, Global Volcanism Program — Volcanoes of the World (VOTW), fetched — via the GVP GeoServer. This shows every eruption the GVP has recorded for the Holocene (~last 10,000 years) — not a complete census. Coverage is dense only for recent centuries; most ancient eruptions are known from tephra and radiocarbon evidence and carry date uncertainty, and countless small eruptions left no trace. The clock runs on a logarithmic time scale, so recent centuries — where the record is rich — get most of the timeline. Explosivity is the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI 0–8, log scale); some eruptions are unrated. © Smithsonian Institution, used with attribution.