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The Global Volcanism Program (GVP) resides in the Department of
Mineral Sciences of the National Museum of Natural History at
the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The GVP seeks
better understanding of all volcanoes through documenting their
eruptions--small as well as large--during the last 10,000
years. The range of volcanic behavior is great enough, and
volcano lifetimes are long enough, that we must integrate
observations of contemporary activity with historical and
geological records of the recent past in order to prepare
wisely for the future. By building a global framework of
volcanism over thousands of years, and by stimulating
documentation of current activity, we attempt to provide a
context in which any individual volcano's benefits and dangers
can be usefully assessed. GVP also plays a central role in the
rapid dissemination of information about on-going volcanic
activity on Earth by publishing eruption reports from local
observers in the monthly Bulleti n of the Global Volcanism
Network.
Website: "http://www.volcano.si.edu/"
[Summary provided by the GVP.]
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