The Pacific Ring of Fire is a geologically active area around the Pacific Rim with 542 volcanoes and numerous earthquakes. It passes through many countries and is caused by the interaction between tectonic plates, resulting in subduction and the creation of oceanic trenches. The Mariana Trench is the deepest point on Earth.
The Pacific Ring of Fire is a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) geologically active stretch of land that extends in a horseshoe shape around the Pacific Rim. It takes its name from the numerous volcanoes and earthquakes along it: 542 volcanoes and thousands of minor earthquakes every year. The Ring of Fire is the most volcanically active area on Earth: it is home to 50% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes, 90% of the world’s earthquakes, and 81% of the world’s major earthquakes.
The Ring of Fire passes through Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Paraguay, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Russia, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Mariana Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and New Zealand. It’s a vast area, several hundred miles wide. The Ring of Fire exists due to the interaction between tectonic plates: it marks the boundary of many major plates, including the Pacific Plate, South American Plate, Nazca Plate, North American Plate, Philippine Plate, and Australian. Many of these plates are in competition, sliding parallel to each other or directly on top of each other (called subduction). Sometimes, large amounts of voltage build up and are suddenly released, causing earthquakes.
Another feature of the Ring of Fire are the many oceanic trenches, which mark the boundaries where a plate, always an oceanic plate, is subducted under the continental plate. This occurs because oceanic plates are made of denser material, which makes them sink more easily than continental plates. Oceanic plates are constantly being subducted at their edges, melting as they are pulled back into the mantle. Near the center of the oceans, features called oceanic ridges are where new crust is being produced (volcanically) to replenish subducted crust.
Some of the larger trenches at plate boundaries are the Peru-Chile Trench, Central America Trench, Aleutian Trench, Kurile Trench, Japan Trench, Izu Bonin Trench, Ryuku Trench, Philippine Trench, the Mariana Trench, the Sunda Trench, the Bougainville Trench, the Tonga Trench and the Kermadec Trench. The Mariana Trench is home to the Challenger Deep, the lowest fissure in the oceans and, by extension, the lowest point on the planet’s surface.
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