What is the Pacific Ring of Fire?

The Pacific Ring of Fire is a major tectonic belt stretching about 40,000 kilometers around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. It is known for intense seismic and volcanic activity, containing roughly two-thirds of the world's active and dormant volcanoes. Rather than being a single geological structure, it was formed by the subduction of various tectonic plates at convergent boundaries.

What we know

• The Ring of Fire is roughly 40,000 km long and up to 500 km wide, surrounding most of the Pacific Ocean. [2]
• The region contains between 750 and 915 active or dormant volcanoes, representing around two-thirds of the global total. [2]
• About 90% of the world's earthquakes, including most of its largest, occur within this belt. [2]
• The geology of the Pacific Northwest is part of the Ring of Fire, where the subduction of the Pacific and Farallon Plates under the North American Plate causes volcanoes and earthquakes. [2, 3]

Still open

• The exact number of volcanoes within the Ring of Fire depends on which specific regions are included.
• The inclusion of certain peripheral areas, such as the Antarctic Peninsula and western Indonesia, in the Ring of Fire is disputed.

Where to go next

• how it workedHow do tectonic plates create earthquakes?
• what caused itWhich tectonic plates form the Ring of Fire?
• what followedWhat hazards do volcanoes pose to communities?
• a case in pointHow does Mount St. Helens fit into the region?
• the bigger pictureWhat is the geological history of the Pacific Northwest?
• an unexpected connectionHow was the 1989 World Series affected by seismic activity?The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco famously disrupted the World Series, and this event was later featured in a documentary about the Ring of Fire.

Sources

• [1]Pacific Ring of Fire (Wikidata Q18783) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Ring of Fire · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Geology of the Pacific Northwest · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]List of volcanoes in Mexico · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Ring of Fire (1991 documentary film) · CC BY-SA 4.0