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The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire or the Circum-Pacific belt) [note 1] is a tectonic belt of volcanoes and earthquakes. It is about 40,000 km (25,000 mi) long [ 1 ] and up to about 500 km (310 mi) wide, [ 2 ] and surrounds most of the Pacific Ocean .
The Pacific Ring of Fire runs parallel to the line and is the world's foremost belt of explosive volcanism. The term andesite line predates the geologic understanding of plate tectonics . The term was first used in 1912 by New Zealand geologist Patrick Marshall to describe the distinct structural and volcanologic boundary extending from east of ...
At 103 million km 2 (40 million sq mi), it is the largest tectonic plate. [2] The plate first came into existence as a microplate 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Izanagi plates. The Pacific plate subsequently grew to where it underlies most of the Pacific Ocean basin.
Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail. These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean.For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km 2 (7.7 million sq mi)
The Pacific plate, for instance, is essentially surrounded by zones of subduction (the so-called Ring of Fire) and moves much faster than the plates of the Atlantic basin, which are attached (perhaps one could say 'welded') to adjacent continents instead of subducting plates.
The East Pacific Rise near Easter Island is the fastest spreading mid-ocean ridge, with a spreading rate of over 15 cm/yr. [2] The Pacific plate moves generally towards the northwest at between 7 and 11 cm/yr while the Juan De Fuca plate has an east-northeasterly movement of some 4 cm/yr. [3]
Mid-ocean ridges around the globe are linked by plate tectonic boundaries and the trace of the ridges across the ocean floor appears similar to the seam of a baseball. The mid-ocean ridge system thus is the longest mountain range on Earth, reaching about 65,000 km (40,000 mi).
Pacific plate – Oceanic tectonic plate under the Pacific Ocean; Molucca Sea plate – Small fully subducted tectonic plate near Indonesia; Nazca plate – Oceanic tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin; North American plate – Large tectonic plate including most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia; Philippine Sea plate ...