Pacific Ring Of Fire

Pacific Ring Of Fire:

As we know that the Pacific ocean is the largest ocean. It has an area larger than the sum of all continents. There are 20 to 30 thousand islands, the majority of the ones that exist, and slightly less than the total of the liquid water on Earth.

The kids take the locations of 25 major volcanos found around the rim of the Pacific Ocean and
map them. This is the same kind of data that Alfred Wegener used to create his theory of continental
drift so, in essence, they are retracing the footsteps of a great mind to see how the idea was generated.
They will then compare their map with a record of all of the earthquakes for the past 50 years. And, like
Wegener, the modern day data will support the original theory.

Volcanoes are generally found where tectonic plates are either pulling away or running into one another, which makes them a great visible clue for inferring and locating the boundaries of tectonic plates. A mid-oceanic ridge, for example the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, has examples of volcanoes caused by divergent tectonic plates pulling apart; the Pacific Ring of Fire has examples of volcanoes caused by convergent tectonic plates coming together which, curiously enough, is the focus the exercise today. This was the data that originally caused Wegener to develop his idea of continental drift, which was the grand daddy of modern plate tectonic theory. Ring of Fire: The Pacific Ring of Fire is an area where large numbers of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean. In a 40,000 km horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. The Ring of Fire has over 450 volcanoes and is home to over 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes.
It is also home to roughly 90% of the world’s earthquakes. 80% of these being among the world’s
largest earthquakes, suggesting lots of movement.
You have a map of earthquake epicenters on the previous page and you will be asked to map 25
of the largest volcanos found in and around the Pacific Ocean on the next page. When you compare the
two sets of data, earthquakes and volcanos, you can see the outline of the Pacific plate very clearly.
Plate Tectonics; The theory states that Earth’s outermost layer, the lithosphere, is broken into 7
large, rigid chunks called plates: the African, North American, South American, Eurasian, Australian,
Antarctic, and Pacific plates. Since the process isn’t a pre-fabricated job, everal minor plates also exist,
including the Arabian, Nazca, and Philippines plates.
The plates are all moving in different directions and at different speeds (from 2 to 10 centimeters
(1 to 3 inches for those of you stuck in English measurement mode) per year, which, for a point of
reference, is about the speed your fingernails grow) in relationship to each other. The plates are moving
around like cars in a slow motion demolition derby, which means they sometimes crash together, pull
apart, or sideswipe each other. The place where the two plates crash, side-swipe and pull apart is called
a plate boundary. Thinking about this in terms of slow moving cars, this is where you would expect to
find almost all of your damage to the crust, producing the location for the volcanos and earthquakes.

Pacific Ring Of Fire:

Its 'Ring of Fire' in inverted horseshoe shape encompasses whole west coast of the Americas, Alaska, East Asia, Indonesia and New Zealand. This bow is about 40,000 km long and has 452 volcanoes (3 out of 4 that exist on our planet).

Shocks occurring there are caused by the movement of tectonic plates that make and shape the earth's surface.

The plates can collide between them (as happens when the Pacific is subsumed under the slabs of Northern Australia, creating elevations, volcanoes and earthquakes of New Zealand and New Guinea and Japan, Alaska and Hawaii, respectively) separated from them by opening cracks (like those that occur between the Pacific Plate and the Nazca and Antarctica) or move in opposite directions (such as creating the fault and the earthquakes in California).

While earthquakes can generate death and destruction, they are also responsible for having developed many of today's living conditions. The 3 most populated islands in the world (Japan, Philippines and Indonesia in Pacific Asia) are fertile (like New Zealand and the Andes), in part because the product of the lava and movements that trigger these shocks.

The two biggest mountain ranges that exist (the Himalayas and the Andes) were created as a result of the sinking of a plate under which it arose. The Pacific plate has produced the largest mass grave (the Marianas that are 11 kilometers deep, is the lowest point of the earth's crust) and also the highest mountain (Mauna Kea in Hawaii), which measures 10 kilometers from its base to 6 kilometers under the sea. Compared to both, Everest is less than 9 kilometers above sea level.

The Pacific Ocean also produces the climatic oscillation that regularly causes devastation worldwide: El Niño. This is produced when the temperature of tropical seas is altered which creates droughts or heavy rains at its opposite ends, but can also link together several changes in climates as far away as Europe or Africa.

'Tsunami' is the most common Japanese word in several languages. This originated in the Asian Pacific, but people around the ocean have designated it by other names. One of them is 'tidal wave' as well being called Callao in 1746, which destroyed the largest port of the American Pacific, killing more than 95% of its inhabitants.