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Most people have never seen a real volcano but have learned about them through movies or books. So when most people think of a volcano, they usually conjure up the Hollywood version: a huge, menacing conical mountain that explodes and spews out masses of lava which falls on rampaging dinosaurs, screaming cave people, or fleeing mobs of betogaed Romans--depending on their favorite volcano disaster movie.

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3D Geography - helping with the teaching and learning of Geography.

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3D Geography - helping with the teaching and learning of Geography.

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Fun ideas for learning about Geography for kids. Packed with lots of information, geography model ideas, activities and geography worksheets to help you learn.

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3D Geography - helping with the teaching and learning of Geography.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
3D Geography - helping with the teaching and learning of Geography.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fun ideas for learning about Geography for kids. Packed with lots of information, geography model ideas, activities and geography worksheets to help you learn.

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What is the "Ring of Fire?" | Volcano World | Oregon State University

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Most of the Earth's volcanoes are located around the Pacific Ring of Fire because that the location of most of the Earth's subduction zones. A subduction zone is a place where one plate of oceanic lithosphere (= the crust + uppermost ) is shoved under another plate.

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The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The majority of Earth's volcanoes and earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire.

Subjects

Earth Science, Geology, Oceanography, Geography

Image

Volcanoes Bromo Nat'l Park

Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park on the island of Java (Jawa), Indonesia, is home to several active volcanoes, which can be seen here smoking ominously against a blue sky.

Photograph by Manamana

The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Its length is approximately 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles). It traces boundaries between several tectonic plates-including the Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North American, and Philippine Plates.

Seventy-five percent of Earth's volcanoes-more than 450 volcanoes-are located along the Ring of Fire. Ninety percent of Earth's earthquakes occur along its path, including the planet's most violent and dramatic seismic events.

The abundance of volcanoes and earthquakes along the Ring of Fire is caused by the amount of movement of tectonic plates in the area. Along much of the Ring of Fire, plates overlap at convergent boundaries called subduction zones. That is, the plate that is underneath is pushed down, or subducted, by the plate above. As rock is subducted, it melts and becomes magma. The abundance of magma so near to Earth's surface gives rise to conditions ripe for volcanic activity. A significant exception is the border between the Pacific and North American Plates. This stretch of the Ring of Fire is a transform boundary, where plates move sideways past one another. This type of boundary generates a large number of earthquakes as tension in Earth's crust builds up and is released.

Media Credits

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Director

Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society

Author

National Geographic Society

Production Managers

Gina Borgia, National Geographic Society

Jeanna Sullivan, National Geographic Society

Program Specialists

Sarah Appleton, National Geographic Society, National Geographic Society

Margot Willis, National Geographic Society

other

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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The Ring of Fire, also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. The majority of Earth's volcanoes and earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire.

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Illustration of the main types of plate boundaries

Types of subduction zones

Oceanic-oceanic plate collision, subduction and formation of an island arc.

Oceanic-continental plate collision, subduction and formation of a volcanic arc.

Aleutians, the Kuriles, Japan, and the Philippines, all located at the northern and western borders of the Pacific plate. There are 2 main types of subduction zones: Oceanic-oceanic plate boundaries: If the subducting plate subducts beneath an adjacent oceanic plate, an Oceanic-continental plate boundaries: if the subducting plate subducts beneath continental lithosphere, then a similar belt of volcanoes will be generated on the continent. These are called volcanic arcs island arc is formed. Examples include the . Examples include the Cascade volcanic arc of the U.S. Pacific northwest, and the Andes volcanic arc of South America, but also the Hellenic arc in the southern Aegean.

The second important tectonic setting where many volcanoes occur is along or near converging plate boundaries. At most such boundaries, where two plates collide, the heavier of the two - usually an oceanic one - sinks (or is pulled) under the other plate, a process called subduction .
Subduction consumes lithosphere and since the surface of the earth is a constant, it compensates for the amount of lithosphere created at divergent plate boundaries.

Magma generation in subduction zones

When the (typically very old) oceanic crust sinks back into the mantle in a subduction zone, it comes progressively under greater pressure and temperature. Its rocks contain significant amounts of water, carbon dioxide and other fluids which are released into the overlaying mantle wedge. above the subduction zones to produce a linear belt of volcanoes parallel to the oceanic trench. The best example are the subduction zones around the Pacific Ocean, often called the
Melting the mantle by adding fluids
This addition of fluids lowers the melting point of the mantle (in a similar way as adding salt lowers the melting point of ice). As a result, the mantle rocks in the wedge overlying the subducting slab produce partial melts = magmas.the magmas are lighter than the mantle and start to rise
"Ring of Fire".
Magmas change composition
The magmas in subduction zone volcanoes are often explosive, because they arrive at the surface as very sticky (viscous) and gas rich. Why?
On their long way up to the surface, these magmas can (and typically do) undergo a variety of processes, such as cooling and partially crystallizing when they pool and cool in magma chambers at different depths. This lets them cool down, which results in the partial crystallization of the magmas.
As different crystals grow from the magmas, the remaining fluid magma changes its chemical composition from the original hot basaltic (silica-poor, iron/magnesium rich) to progressively more silica-rich compositions such as andesitic, dacitic or even rhyolitic.

Explosive volcanism

Explosive fragmentation of sticky, gas-rich magma erupted at Krakatau volcano, a typical subduction-zone volcano.

Volcanoes in subduction zones are typically explosive. Sometimes, they are also called " gray volcanoes" (as opposed to "red volcanoes"), because their eruptions often produce gray ash plumes rather than red hot fluid lava flows.
As magmas in subduction zones are typically richer in silica, they are also much more viscous. At the same time, they still contain most of their fluids (mostly water, carbon & sulfur dioxide). At the surface, these fluids will form bubbles, but sometimes are unable to escape the sticky magma other than by explosive fragmentation.

More on VolcanoDiscovery

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Illustration of the main types of plate boundaries Oceanic-oceanic plate collision, subduction and formation of an island arc. Oceanic-continental plate collision, subduction and formation of a volcanic arc. Aleutians, the Kuriles, Japan, and the Philippines, all located at the northern and western borders of the Pacific plate.