The Ring of Fire

Answer

The Ring of Fire

            The Ring of Fire is defined as a belt of volcanic activity characterized by earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions (National Geographic Society, 2015; Vox.com, 2018). The Ring of Fire is important since it extends to a great geographical distances and has contributed to significant number of natural disasters in history. The Ring of Fire is a major determinant of seismic disasters globally, which may lead to human suffering, loss of property and lives, and damage to ecosystems.

            The Ring of Fire is belt of volcanic activity. The Ring of Fire is important since it is a band of volcanoes that is associated with frequent earthquakes. The Ring begins from New Zealand then transverses North through Eastern Asia via the Bering Strait and then goes down all to the Southern-tip of Chile (Vox.com, 2018).  The Ring of Fire, also known as the Circum-Pacific Belt, traces the meeting points of various tectonic plates, including the North American, Eurasian, Cocos, Juan de Fuca, Nazca, Caribbean, Indian, Antarctic, Philippine, Australian, and other smaller plates. All these places tend to encircle the large Pacific Plate. The plates often collide into, slide past, and move below or above each other. These movements result in volcanic eruptions, deep ocean trenches, and earthquake epicenters along plate boundaries, also referred to as fault lines (National Geographic Society, 2015).

            The deepest ocean trench in the world known as the Mariana Trench is 7 miles deep and lies along the Ring of Fire. Mariana Trench is located in East of Guam. The Trench was formed when one plate slide over another (National Geographic Society, 2015).  It is chain of about 25,000 miles of volcanoes as well as seismically-active sites, which outline the Pacific Ocean (National Geographic Society, 2015). According to Sulaiman et al. (2018), the belt runs about 40,000 kilometer.

            The Ring of Fire is associated with a long history of natural disasters around the Pacific (Vox.com, 2018).  The Ring of Fire is home to 75% of all volcanoes in the world and about 90% of the global earthquakes occur within the geographical area within the Ring. One of the notable volcanoes that lie in this area is Mount Tambora located in Indonesia that recorded the largest ever volcanic eruption in 1815. It is the largest ever documented volcanic eruption in history to date (National Geographic Society, 2015). The belt is home to majority of the world dormant and active volcanoes (Sulaiman et al., 2018).

            The belt of the Pacific Ring of Fire is considered as the most active geological place on earth contributing to many incidences of natural disasters including tsunamis and tsunamis (Sulaiman et al., 2018). Earthquakes can lead to terrific destruction of lives, infrastructure and the flora. Tectonic activity along the Ring of Fire is attributed to have caused the Valdivia Earthquake in Chile in 1960. The earthquake of 1960 is the ever most powerful earthquake in history in the planet; it recorded 9.5/10 on the Richter scale (National Geographic Society, 2015).

            Chile lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire and has a history of natural disasters ranging from volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Chile is exposed to natural disasters due to its geographical location and about 12.9% of its total surface area and 54% of its population is exposed to volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, or earthquakes (Bronfman et al., 2019). Chile has experienced 10 natural disasters (floods, wildfires, tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions) between 2008 and 2018, which resulted into about 800 fatalities and over four million affected persons. In 2010 alone, an earthquake and resultant tsunami resulted in loss of 562 lives in Chile and $30 billion losses in terms of property damage (Bronfman et al., 2019).

On the other hand, Malaysia was originally thought as lying outside the zone of the Pacific Ring of Fire. However, after being hit by two earthquakes one with as magnitude of 3.5 on Richter Scale in Bukit Tinggi, and a 6.0 magnitude quake in Ranau, Sabah it was confirmed that it was no more at no risk seismic disasters (Sulaiman et al., 2018).  Pacific Ring of Fire is the most seismically active place on earth; hence, it requires be treating as a top priority and treated with special attention when making decisions relating to disaster management (Sulaiman et al., 2018).