Also called the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is a geographical region of high volcanic activity that surrounds the majority of the Pacific Ocean Basin. It is a 40,000 km stretch of a series of volcanoes and seismically active sites – from the southern tip of South America, up along the west coast of North America, across the Bering Strait and down through Japan and then into New Zealand. It also takes in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. The term ‘Ring of Fire’ is descriptive rather than literal. The Ring of Fire is home to 75% of the world’s volcanoes and is prone to 90% of its earthquakes.
Why are most volcanoes concentrated here?
The Rink of Fire is the direct result of plate tectonics. Most of the volcanoes are located here because most of the Earth’s subduction zones are located here. A subduction zone is a region of the Earth’s crust where tectonic plates interact with one another. Tectonic plates are massive pieces of the Earth’s crust and the upper mantle.
Countries in the Ring of Fire
1. Chile 2. Mexico 3. The United States 4. Antarctica 5. Russia 6. Japan 7. The Philippines 8. New Zealand 9. Papa New Guinea 10. Indonesia 11. Canada 12. Peru 13. Taiwan 14. Gautemala are the top 14 countries that dot the pacific Ring of Fire.
Picture Credit : Google