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Volcano Hazards Program

Find U.S. Volcano

There are about 170 potentially active volcanoes in the U.S. The mission of the USGS Volcano Hazards Program is to enhance public safety and minimize social and economic disruption from volcanic unrest and eruption through our National Volcano Early Warning System. We deliver forecasts, warnings, and information about volcano hazards based on a scientific understanding of volcanic behavior.

News

Volcano Watch — (Lava) fountains of knowledge: announcing January 2026 Volcano Awareness Month events on the Island of Hawaiʻi

Volcano Watch — (Lava) fountains of knowledge: announcing January 2026 Volcano Awareness Month events on the Island of Hawaiʻi

Volcano Watch — Tracking the growth of a new puʻu at Kīlauea

Volcano Watch — Tracking the growth of a new puʻu at Kīlauea

Photo & Video Chronology — December 2, 2025 — Kīlauea summit overflight

Photo & Video Chronology — December 2, 2025 — Kīlauea summit overflight

Publications

The anatomy and lethality of the Siberian Traps large igneous province The anatomy and lethality of the Siberian Traps large igneous province

Emplacement of the Siberian Traps large igneous province (LIP) around 252 Ma coincided with the most profound environmental disruption of the past 500 million years. The enormous volume of the Siberian Traps, its ability to generate greenhouse gases and other volatiles, and a temporal coincidence with extinction all suggest a causal link. Patterns of marine and terrestrial extinction...
Authors
Seth Burgess, Benjamin Black

Mitigation of human cognitive bias in volcanic eruption forecasting Mitigation of human cognitive bias in volcanic eruption forecasting

Modern operational eruption forecasting methods rely heavily on human judgment in the face of uncertainty and are thus susceptible to myriad cognitive biases and errors by the scientist-forecasters. Recent developments in the behavioral sciences have elucidated cognitive biases across a wide spectrum of human behaviors and found ways to mitigate them. These insights have led to...
Authors
Heather Wright, J. D. Pesicek, Stephen Spiller

The transition from melt accumulation to eruption initiation recorded by orthopyroxene Fe-Mg diffusion timescales in late Holocene rhyolites, South Sister volcano, Oregon Cascade Range The transition from melt accumulation to eruption initiation recorded by orthopyroxene Fe-Mg diffusion timescales in late Holocene rhyolites, South Sister volcano, Oregon Cascade Range

South Sister volcano, Oregon Cascade Range, USA, has repeatedly erupted rhyolite since ca. 40 ka. The youngest such eruptions are the ca. 2 ka Rock Mesa and Devils Chain rhyolites, erupted several hundred years apart from two multi-vent complexes separated by 3–6 km. Fe-Mg interdiffusion models of orthopyroxene rims from both rhyolites produce timescales up to several-thousand years, but
Authors
Nathan Andersen, Annika Dechert, Dawn Ruth, May Sas, Julie Chouinard, Josef Dufek
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