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an area basin of pacific ocean where a large number of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occurs. active volcanoes surrounding the Pacific ocean in a ring-like structure is termed as a pacific ring of fire.
The Ring of Fire is a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes (more than 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes). The Ring of Fire is sometimes called the circum-Pacific belt.
About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. The next most seismically active region (5Ğ6% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's largest earthquakes) is the Alpide belt, which extends from Java to the northern Atlantic Ocean via the Himalayas and southern Europe.
All but three of the world's 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire.[6]
The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics: the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates. The eastern section of the ring is the result of the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate being subducted beneath the westward moving South American Plate.
The Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate, in Central America. A portion of the Pacific Plate and the small Juan de Fuca Plate are being subducted beneath the North American Plate.
Along the northern portion, the northwestward-moving Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the Aleutian Islands arc. Farther west, the Pacific plate is being subducted along the Kamchatka Peninsula arcs on south past Japan.
The southern portion is more complex, with a number of smaller tectonic plates in collision with the Pacific plate from the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Bougainville, Tonga, and New Zealand; this portion excludes Australia since it lies in the centre of its tectonic plate. Indonesia lies between the Ring of Fire along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including New Guinea and the Alpide belt along the south and west from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, and Timor. The famous and very active San Andreas Fault zone of California is a transform fault which offsets a portion of the East Pacific Rise under the southwestern United States and Mexico.
The motion of the fault generates numerous small earthquakes, at multiple times a day, most of which are too small to be felt. The active Queen Charlotte Fault on the west coast of the Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, has generated three large earthquakes during the 20th century: a magnitude 7 event in 1929; a magnitude 8.1 in 1949 (Canada's largest recorded earthquake); and a magnitude 7.4 in 1970.
It means that the Ring of Fire includes 75% of the world’s active volcanoes and is also responsible for 90% of the world’s earthquakes.
The Ring of Fire stretches from the southern tip of South America, up along the coast of North America, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan, and into New Zealand, and multiple Pacific Islands such as Papua New Guinea. Among 452 volcanoes of the Ring of Fire, there are some very famous and dangerous.
For example:
Popocatepetl – an active volcano in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt. Located near Mexico City, this volcano is considered by many to be the most dangerous in the world since a large eruption could potentially kill millions of people.
Mt. Saint Helens -The Cascade Mountains in the United States’ Pacific Northwest hosts the 800 miles (1,300 km) Cascade Volcanic Arc. The Cascades contain 13 major volcanoes and nearly 3,000 other volcanic features. The most recent eruption in the Cascades occurred at Mt. Saint Helens in 1980.
The Andean Volcanic Belt within the Andes Mountains (longest, the continental mountain range in the world) is broken into four volcanic zones that include such active volcanoes as Cotopaxi and Cerro Azul. It is also home to the highest, active volcano — Ojos del Salado.
Mt. Fuji, located on the Japanese island of Honshu, Mt. Fuji, at 12,380 feet (3,776 m), is the tallest mountain in Japan and the world’s most visited mountain and an active volcano that last erupted in 1707.
Krakatoa – In the Indonesia Island Arc sits Krakatoa, remembered for its massive eruption on August 27, 1883, that killed 36,000 people and was heard 2,800 miles away (it is considered the loudest sound in modern history).
The Indonesian Island Arc is also home to Mt. Tambora, whose eruption on April 10, 1815, was the largest in major history, is calculated as a 7 on the Volcanic Explosion Index (VEI).
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