About the Volcanoes & Earthquakes desk

This desk reads the world’s volcano observatories and seismic networks. Earthquake locations and magnitudes come from the United States Geological Survey, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, GEOFON and the Japan Meteorological Agency. Volcanic activity is read from the USGS Volcano Hazards Program and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, from the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, from national observatories such as INSIVUMEH in Guatemala and INGV in Italy, and from the aviation Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres whose SIGMETs state the height and direction of ash clouds.

Thermal detections from NASA’s FIRMS satellites are shown as detections, not as confirmed eruptions, and live observatory cameras, where an observatory publishes one, are shown with the observatory’s credit. Alert levels and aviation colour codes are the observatory’s own; RNN relays them and does not interpret them.

Tsunami information is taken from the NOAA tsunami warning centres and relayed as issued. A raw earthquake reading appears first on the river gauges page; it becomes a network alert only once a government agency has stated its severity.