Pacific volcanic ring of fire

Pacific volcanic ring of fire

Pacific volcanic ring of fire (Pacific ring of fire, Pacific ring, Pacific belt of fire) - the area around the perimeter of the Pacific Ocean , in which there are most active volcanoes and there are many earthquakes . In total, there are 328 active terrestrial volcanoes out of 540 known on Earth in this zone.

On the western coast of the Pacific Ocean, a volcanic chain stretches from the Kamchatka Peninsula through the Kuril , Japanese , and Philippine Islands , the island of New Guinea , the Solomon Islands, and New Zealand to Antarctica . The eastern part of the ring includes volcanoes of northeastern Antarctica , the islands of Tierra del Fuego , the Andes , Cordillera and the Aleutian Islands .

Tectonic plates of the world

In the Pacific Ocean there are several zones of spreading (growth) of the oceanic lithosphere , the main of which is the East Pacific zone (includes the underwater lithospheric plates Cocos and Nazca ). On the periphery of the ocean, these plates are subducted beneath the framing continents . A chain of volcanoes stretches over each subduction zone, and together they form the Pacific Ring. However, this ring is incomplete, it is interrupted where there is no subduction - from New Zealand and along the Antarctic coast. In addition, there is no subduction or volcanism on two sections of the coast of North America: along the peninsula and the state of California (more than 2000 km) and north of Vancouver Island (almost 1500 km).

About 90% of all world earthquakes and 80% of the most powerful of them occurred in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The next largest seismic zone (5-6% of earthquakes and 17% of the most powerful earthquakes in the world) is the Mediterranean fold belt , which begins near Java and Sumatra , goes through the Himalayas , the Mediterranean and ends in the Atlantic Ocean . The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most powerful earthquake zone.