BREAKING PLATES
So, the “Ring of Fire” is an area with the
most tectonic plate movement. How
has this impacted the regions located
within this band of breaking plates (not
like the Greek wedding tradition!) Alaska
experiences an ear thquake of around
7.0 at least once a year. New Zealand,
Indonesia, Borneo and Japan have
also experienced some devastating
ear thquakes recently. But the largest
recorded ear thquake took place in
Chile in South America in 1960 with a
measurement of 9.5 on the Richter scale.
The shock was so severe that tremors
were felt in dif ferent par ts of the world for
several days! Other big ear thquakes in
the Ring of Fire include the Great Alaska
Ear thquake in 1964 (magnitude 9.2), the
Nor thern Sumatra ear thquake (causing
a tsunami) in 2004 (magnitude 9.1), and
the colossal quake of f the coast of Japan
in 2011 (magnitude 9.0), which caused a
tsunami and nuclear disaster.
LIQUID LAVA
The ring of fire houses also houses at least 450 volcanoes
(active and dormant), and most of these are located on
the western edge – from the Kamchatka Peninsula in
Russia through the islands of Japan, South East Asia and
then into New Zealand. One of the most active volcanoes
in this belt is Mount Ruapehu in New Zealand. The iconic
Mount Fuji in Japan is also an active volcano!BLOWING THEIR TOPS
How are volcanoes formed? Magma – molten
rock – below the Ear th’s sur face finds its way
to the sur face, and erupts: the lava and ash
combine to form a volcano. Ever y time it erupts,
the volcano becomes bigger. But volcanoes
can erupt in two dif ferent ways. Some have
explosive eruptions that are so power ful, they
can fire par ticles up to 32 kilometers away!
Explosive volcanoes can also cause massive
landslides, sending a destructive rush of boiling
volcanic ash and gas into the air. Other volcanoes
are ef fusive: they do not explode. Rather, the
lava flows out gradually.POWER PLAYPOWER PLAY