National Geographic USA – June 2019

J AKART A

1 0,639,000 people

Indramayu

112,000 people

Bekasi

3,277,000 people

Depok

2,615,000 people

Tangerang

2,280,000 people

THE PACIFIC’S

WITHIN THE ROCKY BASIN of the

Pacific, volcanoes and earthquakes

have been causing death and destruc-

tion for millennia. The tectonic cycle

unleashes enormous energy here,

in seismic and volcanic events that

change the face of the globe. Today,

with booming growth in Asia and

parts of the Americas, more people

live close to calamity than ever before.

On just one island in Indonesia—Java,

shown here—41 active volcanoes

threaten some 151 million people. As

Earth’s population swells toward eight

billion, the threats from this Ring of

Fire will compound.

Deep within the Earth, rocky plates compress and pull apart,

SCALE VARIES IN THIS PERSPECTIVE.

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN JAKARTA AND SURABAYA IS 410 MILES.

ART: ANTOINE COLLIGNON