What Causes the ‘Ring of Fire’ Around the Pacific?

The Ring of Fire is like a necklace around the Pacific Ocean, made up of many volcanoes and earthquake zones. It happens because big pieces of Earth’s crust, called plates, are constantly moving and bumping into each other, sometimes one plate goes under another, causing powerful events.

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Examples

A child's volcano erupts with lava because two plates are colliding under the ground.
Earthquakes shake a city as one piece of Earth goes beneath another.
Volcanoes line up like beads on a necklace around the Pacific Ocean.

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Categories: Science · volcanoes,earthquakes,plate tectonics,geology