PACIFIC RING OF FIRE -
GEOGRAPHY
News: Earthquake Strikes Taiwan:
What's Ring Of Fire?
What's in the news?
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Taiwan's strongest earthquake in a quarter century
rocked the island, damaging buildings and highways and causing the deaths of
four people.
Key takeaways:
●
Taiwan is prone to earthquakes as it lies along the
Pacific "Ring of Fire" - where 90% of the world's earthquakes take
place.
Pacific Ring of Fire:
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The Ring of Fire, also known as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a chain of
numerous volcanoes and earthquake–prone areas that stretches along the Pacific
Ocean.
Length:
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It forms a horseshoe-shaped semicircle, spanning
approximately 40,250 kilometres in length.
Bordering Countries:
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The Ring of Fire marks the borders between multiple
tectonic plates such as the Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian,
Nazca, North American, and Philippine Plates.
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It passes through 15 additional countries, including the USA, Indonesia, Mexico,
Japan, Canada, Guatemala, Russia, Chile, Peru, and the Philippines.
Features of Ring of
Fire:
1. Active Volcanoes:
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Volcanoes in the Ring of Fire are caused by the movement of tectonic plates, often
through a process called subduction.
This occurs when two plates collide, with the heavier one being pushed beneath
the other, resulting in the formation of deep trenches.
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The Ring of Fire hosts over 450 active and inactive volcanoes, making up 75% of the Earth’s
total volcanoes. These volcanoes form a semicircle or horseshoe shape around
the Pacific Ocean rim.
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The majority of active volcanoes along the Ring of
Fire are located on its western side, spanning from Russia to New Zealand.
2. Earthquakes:
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The Ring of Fire experiences frequent earthquakes
because the tectonic plates continuously
slide past, collide with, or move above or below each other.
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90% of earthquakes happen along the Ring of Fire,
including some of the most powerful ones. For example - The Valdivia Earthquake
in Chile in 1960, which measured 9.5 on the Richter scale, holds the record as
the strongest earthquake ever recorded.
3. Trenches:
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The Ring of Fire includes the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean trench, which reaches a depth of
7 miles.
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Other trenches in the area include the Philippine
Trench, Challenger Trench, Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, Peru-Chile Trench, and Tonga
Trench.
Why is it More Prone to
Earthquakes?
●
It witnesses so many earthquakes due to constant
sliding past, colliding into, or moving above or below each other of the
tectonic plates. As the edges of these plates are quite rough, they get stuck
with one another while the rest of the plate keeps moving.
● An earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges unstick on one of the faults.