Why are earthquakes and volcanoes found around the Ring of Fire?
About 70% of the earthquakes in the world happen around the Pacific rim, going from New Zealand to New Guinea, past the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Kamchatka, Alaska, the western United States, Mexico, Central America, and western South America. This is also called the “ring of fire.” Many of the rest happen in an east-west band across southern Europe, the Middle East, and northern India/southern China. Earthquakes mostly happen along the boundaries between tectonic plates. The places mentioned above are all along plate boundaries. (Look at a World Seismicity Map from the U.S. Geological Survey.) The San Andreas fault is the most studied fault which is a major part of the plate boundary between the North American and Pacific plates. Hundreds of small earthquakes occur within California along this plate boundary every week. (Look at a Western U.S. Seismicity Map.
