Natural Hazards Image Database

Photographs and other visual media provide valuable pre- and post-event data for natural hazards. Research, mitigation, and forecasting rely on visual data for post-analysis, inundation mapping and historic records. Instrumental data only reveal a portion of the whole story; photographs explicitly illustrate the physical and societal impacts from an event.
This resource provides high-resolution geologic and damage photographs from natural hazards events, including earthquakes, tsunamis, slides, volcanic eruptions and geologic movement (faults, creep, subsidence and flows). The earliest images date back to 1886. Each event also links to NGDC's Global Historical hazards databases, which provide details for these events.

Data and Resources

Field	Value
accessLevel	public
accrualPeriodicity	R/PT1S
bureauCode	{006:48}
catalog_@context	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier	gov.noaa.ngdc:Hazard_Images_Database
language	{en-US}
modified	2012-02-01
old-spatial	{"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
programCode	{006:059}
publisher	DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce (Point of Contact)
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	f2b893ecfc52f0054f6ab107f180ae6b313f21cf
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	{"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
Groups	AmeriGEOSS National Provider North America
Tags	amerigeo amerigeoss boulder boulder-world-data-service-for-geophysics ckan doc-noaa-nesdis-ngdc-national-geophysical-data-center earth-science-human-dimensions-infrastructure earth-science-human-dimensions-natural-hazards-earthquakes earth-science-human-dimensions-natural-hazards-land-subsidence earth-science-human-dimensions-natural-hazards-landslides earth-science-human-dimensions-natural-hazards-tsunamis earth-science-human-dimensions-natural-hazards-volcanic-eruptions earth-science-oceans-ocean-waves-seiches earth-science-oceans-ocean-waves-tsunamis earth-science-solid-earth-geomorphic-landforms-processes earth-science-solid-earth-geomorphic-landforms-processes-tectonic-processes-subduction earth-science-solid-earth-tectonic-landforms-faults earth-science-solid-earth-tectonics-earthquakes earth-science-solid-earth-tectonics-volcanic-activity geo geographic-region-global-land geographic-region-global-ocean geoss national nesdis noaa north-america u-s-department-of-commerce united-states wds-mgg
isopen	False
license_id	notspecified
license_title	License not specified
maintainer	Heather McCullough
maintainer_email	Heather.McCullough@noaa.gov
metadata_created	2025-11-22T21:14:18.481445
metadata_modified	2025-11-22T21:14:18.481449
notes	Photographs and other visual media provide valuable pre- and post-event data for natural hazards. Research, mitigation, and forecasting rely on visual data for post-analysis, inundation mapping and historic records. Instrumental data only reveal a portion of the whole story; photographs explicitly illustrate the physical and societal impacts from an event. This resource provides high-resolution geologic and damage photographs from natural hazards events, including earthquakes, tsunamis, slides, volcanic eruptions and geologic movement (faults, creep, subsidence and flows). The earliest images date back to 1886. Each event also links to NGDC's Global Historical hazards databases, which provide details for these events.
num_resources	3
num_tags	30
title	Natural Hazards Image Database