Context:
Taiwan, that lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, was rocked by an earthquake of magnitude 7.4.
Ring of Fire:
- Ring of Fire – Horseshoe-shaped path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
- Also referred to as – Circum-Pacific Belt
- Roughly 90% of all earthquakes occur along Ring of Fire, and it has 75% of all active volcanoes on Earth.
- Reason for frequent earthquake and volcanoes –
- Plate Tectonics where massive Pacific Plate interacts with less-dense plates surrounding it.
- Most of the planet’s subduction zones happen to be located in the Ring of Fire.
- Tectonic plates surrounding Ring of Fire – Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North American, and Philippine Plates.
- Significance – Stores world’s largest geothermal energy resources
Active Volcanoes in the region:
- Mostly located in the western edge on Ring of Fire, from Russia to New Zealand.
- Examples –
- Mount Tambora of Indonesia
- Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand
- Krakatoa, an island volcano in Indonesia
- Mount Fuji in Japan’s (sits at a “triple junction”, where 3 tectonic plates – Amur Plate, Okhotsk Plate, and Philippine Plate – interact)
- Mount St. Helens in the U.S (in the Cascade Mountain)
- Popocatépetl in Mexico
Island Arcs:
- Long, curved chains of oceanic islands associated with intense volcanic and seismic activity and orogenic (mountain-building) processes.
- Examples – Aleutian-Alaska Arc and theKuril-Kamchatka Arc
Trenches:
- Ocean trenches are steep depressions in the deepest parts of the ocean where an old ocean crust from one tectonic plate is pushed beneath another plate
- Examples –
- Mariana Trench (deepest ocean trench)
- Philippine Trench
- Challenger trench
- Kuril- Kamchatka Trench
- Peru–Chile Trench
- Tonga Trench.
Source: The Hindu
Previous Year Question
Which one of the following is a part of the Congo Basin?
[UPSC Civil Service Exam – 2023 Prelims]
(a) Cameroon
(b) Nigeria
(c) South Sudan
(d) Uganda
Answer: (a)
