| Pacific Ring Of Fire |
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Information AboutPacific Ring Of Fire |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PACIFIC RING OF FIRE | |
| plate tectonics | |
| volcanology | |
| seismology | |
| oceania | |
| geography of oceania | |
| volcanoes of the pacific ocean | |
| extreme points of the world | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur within the Ring of Fire. The next most seismic region (5-6% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's largest earthquakes) is the Alpide Belt which extends from Java to Sumatra through the Himalayas, the Mediterranean, and out into the Atlantic. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the third most prominent earthquake belt. [http://earthquake.usgs.gov/image_glossary/ringoffire.html . The Ring of Fire is a direct consequence of and the Cocos Plate being Subducted beneath the westward moving South American Plate . A portion of the Pacific Plate along with the small Juan De Fuca Plate are being subducted beneath the North American Plate . Along the northern portion the northwestward moving Pacific plate is being subducted beneath the Aleutian Islands arc. Further west the Pacific plate is being subducted along the Kamchatka - Kurile Islands arcs on south past Japan . The southern portion is more complex with a number of smaller tectonic plates in collision with the Pacific plate from the Mariana Islands , the Philippines , Bougainville , Tonga , and New Zealand . Indonesia lies between the ''Ring of Fire'' along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including New Guinea and the ''Alpide belt'' along the south and west from Sumatra , Java , Bali , Flores , and Timor . The December 2004 earthquake just off the coast of Sumatra was actually a part of the Alpide belt. The famous and active San Andreas Fault zone of California is a Transform Fault which offsets a portion of the East Pacific Rise under southwestern United States and Mexico . FEATURES A number of land and sea features are in the Ring of Fire (from the southwest, listed clockwise):
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