Ring of Fire

The horseshoe-shaped belt of earthquake epicenters and active volcanoes that encircles the Pacific Ocean, running from New Zealand through Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Alaska, and down the western coasts of North and South America. Roughly 75 percent of the world's active volcanoes and 90 percent of its earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. It is not a single feature but a chain of subduction zones, transform faults, and hot spots — the Pacific plate's boundary with the world.