![]() ![]() Convergent boundaries are often subduction zones, where the heavier plate slips under the lighter plate, creating a deep trench. Most tectonic activity in the Ring of Fire occurs in these geologically active zones.Ī convergent plate boundary is formed by tectonic plates crashing into each other. Sometimes these plates collide, move apart, or slide next to each other. ![]() The plates are not fixed but are constantly moving atop a layer of solid and molten rock called the mantle. Tectonic plates are huge slabs of Earth’s crust, which fit together like pieces of a puzzle. ![]() The Ring of Fire is the result of plate tectonics. Several active and dormant volcanoes in Antarctica, however, “close” the ring. A string of 452 volcanoes stretches from the southern tip of South America, up along the coast of North America, across the Bering Strait, down through Japan, and into New Zealand. It is shaped more like a 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) horseshoe. The Ring of Fire isn’t quite a circular ring. Roughly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, and the ring is dotted with 75 percent of all active volcanoes on Earth. The Ring of Fire is a string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity, or earthquakes, around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. ![]()
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