Most earth scientists today are familiar with the wide range of volcanological progress that has been made at the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory during the last 30 years. Less is known, however, about the important work done there from 1925 through 1955. Much of this information resides in the 530 consecutive issues of The Volcano Letter, a quasi-formal publication issued regularly by the Observatory during that 31-year period. In addition, The Volcano Letter included reports from the Lassen Volcano Observatory (California) from its founding in 1926 to 1933. This volume compiles and indexes these publications.

A look at most early issues of The Volcano Letter will reveal why we at the Smithsonian Institution were particularly interested in making this series more readily available to today's volcanological community. In an effort to make The Volcano Letter more appealing to the vast non-Hawaiian audience, the original editors made a point of including reports and notes describing the activity of volcanoes from around the world. Through the years, therefore, the readers of The Volcano Letter were treated to accounts of volcanic activity from Chile to Kamchatka, from Indonesia to Iceland. Also sprinkled liberally throughout were notes and comments on many other aspects of volcanism such as geothermal energy, volcano hazards, geysers, and calderas.