The study presented in this paper is arguably the first study to use a self-organizing map (SOM) for global structural damage detection. A novel unsupervised vibration-based damage detection algorithm is introduced using SOMs in order to quantify structural damage. In this algorithm, SOMs are used to extract a number of damage indices from the random acceleration response of the monitored structure in the time domain. The summation of the indices is used as an indicator which reflects the overall condition of the structure. The ability of the algorithm to quantify the overall structural damage is demonstrated using experimental data of Phase II experimental benchmark problem of structural health monitoring.