Find out what the Ring of Fire is that causes earthquakes so often

In less than a month, consecutive earthquakes occurred in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Japan and recently Taiwan. This series of earthquakes has left considerable damage to people and property in these countries. In history many years ago, many more severe and tragic earthquakes occurred. It is known that the cause of the earthquake is the Ring of Fire.

What is the definition of Ring of Fire?

Find out what the Ring of Fire is that causes earthquakes so often Picture 1

The Ring of Fire is an area with the most active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The Ring of Fire runs along the Pacific Ocean, so it is also called the Pacific Ring of Fire. It is shaped like a horseshoe and has a length of about 40,000km.

The Ring of Fire is a collection of ocean trenches, archipelagos, and volcanic ranges. Clockwise, we can go through the countries in this belt as follows: New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Aleutian Islands - Alaska - California state of the US, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

What is an earthquake and why is it created?

An earthquake is a sudden release of energy from deep within the earth. This is where a large amount of heat is stored. The reason earthquakes often occur is because tectonic plates collide with each other, creating friction and energy. When too much energy accumulates inside the Earth's crust, it needs to be released, this process is an earthquake. It takes tens of thousands of years for enough energy to accumulate, but to release it only takes a few seconds.

To be more specific, tectonic plates are giant slabs of rock in the Earth's crust that are about 100km thick. On the surface of the Earth is a collection of 7 main tectonic plates and many small tectonic plates. The collision between these tectonic plates has created mountain ranges, volcanoes, earthquakes and geological phenomena.

The 7 main plates that make up the Earth's crust are: the Pacific plate, the Eurasian plate, the Indo-Australian plate, the African plate, the North American plate, the South American plate, and the Antarctic plate. The boundaries between tectonic plates are not counted as boundaries between continents, in fact they will differ in position.

On average each year, tectonic plates only move about 5cm. But during an earthquake, they can move several meters per second.

Earthquakes frequently occur in the Ring of Fire

Along the Ring of Fire, most tectonic plates overlap and converge at subduction points, meaning the lower plate is pushed down by the upper plate and sinks into the Earth's mantle. These plates melt and become molten magma. Magma rises to the surface through cracks in the Earth's crust. Magma eruptions that occurred many times created volcanoes

There are more than 450 volcanoes located along the Ring of Fire, both active and dormant. This number accounts for 75% of volcanoes on Earth. 90% of global earthquakes occur in this belt. Besides earthquakes, violent seismic events also occur in the Ring of Fire.

Lesley Montoya

Update 04 April 2024