About geohazardwatch

geohazardwatch is an open-source add-on for the ngdpbase platform that brings volcano and earthquake data into pages via simple markup tags.

It is not a live data feed — it works by importing snapshots from public scientific APIs and making that data available to plugins. This keeps the site fast and resilient to upstream outages, at the cost of some data freshness.

What data is available

Data sources

Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program (GVP)

The GVP maintains the world's most comprehensive catalog of volcanic activity. The geohazardwatch volcano catalog is drawn from the GVP WFS API and covers:

• Basic facts: name, GVP number, country, region, coordinates, elevation
• Classification: volcano type, dominant rock type, tectonic setting
• Epoch: Holocene (erupted in the last ~11,700 years) or Pleistocene (older)
• Eruption history: confirmed and uncertain eruptions with VEI, start/end dates, and evidence type

Source: volcano.si.edu Data citation: Global Volcanism Program, 2025. Volcanoes of the World (v. 5.3.4). Smithsonian Institution. https://doi.org/10.5479/si.GVP.VOTW5-2023.5.3

USGS Earthquake Hazards Program

The USGS monitors global seismic activity in near-real-time. geohazardwatch imports the M4.5+ past-7-days feed by default. Earthquakes are cross-referenced with the GVP volcano catalog to identify events within 50 km of a known volcano.

Each earthquake record includes:

• Magnitude and depth
• Location and coordinates
• PAGER economic alert level (green / yellow / orange / red) where assessed
• Tsunami flag (USGS-issued, not a guarantee of actual wave generation)
• Nearest volcano within 50 km (if any)

Source: earthquake.usgs.gov Feed: USGS GeoJSON Feeds

USGS Hazard Alert Notification System (HANS)

HANS provides real-time alert levels for the 65 US volcanoes monitored by the USGS Volcano Hazards Program. Alert levels follow a four-level scale (NORMAL → ADVISORY → WATCH → WARNING) paired with aviation colour codes (GREEN → YELLOW → ORANGE → RED).

Coverage is limited to US volcanoes only — primarily in Alaska, Hawaii, the Cascades, and the western US. For global volcanic activity use the GVP-sourced plugins.

Source: volcanoes.usgs.gov Live HANS data: volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public/api/

Data freshness

All data on this site is a point-in-time snapshot, not a live feed. Data is imported by running the addon's import scripts manually (or on a schedule if configured).

If you need live data, visit the source portals directly (links above).

Plugin reference

Seven markup plugins are available:

Full usage guide with examples: Plugin Guide

Open source

geohazardwatch is open source and available at github.com/jwilleke/geohazardwatch. The ngdpbase platform that powers this site is at github.com/jwilleke/ngdpbase.