There is a growing debate on the conventional plume model and no consensus about their deep origin. Davaille et al. (2005) showed, using fluid mechanics experiments, the existence of different class of plumes, depending on mantle thermo-chemical properties. Cape Verde is located in the interior of a slow-moving oceanic plate, away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and is associated with one of the world’s largest swell. Some swells are believed to be caused by mantle plumes that rise from deep in the mantle to interact with the base of the lithosphere, while others are considered to be originated by the stress state of the lithospheric plates themselves. As part of a combined study of seismic, gravimetric, magnetic and geochemical observations in order to get a clearer picture of what is happening underneath Cape Verde we performed a first dense seismological VBB network deployment on several Cape Verde islands in 2007 and 2008. This presented a unique opportunity to assemble an important archive of high-quality seismic waveforms, recorded on oceanic volcanic islands. Waveform data are available from the GEOFON data centre, under network code 9A with CC-BY 4.0 license.