The Pacific Ring of Fire is a roughly 40,000 km horseshoe-shaped belt of subduction zones ringing the Pacific Ocean, where about 90% of the world's earthquakes and most of its active volcanoes occur. The map above traces the belt of subduction zones that forms the ring and plots live ring of fire earthquakes along it - follow it from New Zealand and Indonesia up through Japan and the Aleutians, then down the Americas to the Andes. For instant alerts when a quake strikes near you, the free QuakeMate app sends real-time push notifications.
Countries on the Ring of Fire
See live earthquakes - plus volcanoes and tsunami risk - for the countries along the ring.
Explore the tectonic plates
Ring of Fire earthquakes: frequently asked questions
What is the Ring of Fire?
The Ring of Fire is a roughly 40,000 km horseshoe-shaped belt of subduction zones and volcanic arcs around the edges of the Pacific Ocean. It stretches from New Zealand up through Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, across to Alaska, and down the west coasts of North and South America.
Why do so many earthquakes happen in the Ring of Fire?
The Ring of Fire marks the boundaries where the Pacific and several smaller plates collide with and dive beneath neighbouring plates. This subduction builds enormous stress that releases as earthquakes, which is why about 90% of the world’s earthquakes and most of its largest ones occur here.
How many of the world’s earthquakes occur in the Ring of Fire?
Roughly 90% of all earthquakes - and about 80% of the largest, most powerful earthquakes - happen along the Ring of Fire. The belt is also home to around 75% of the planet’s active and dormant volcanoes.
Which countries are in the Ring of Fire?
Going anticlockwise from the west: Russia (Kamchatka), Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand; then Canada (British Columbia), the United States (Alaska, the Pacific Northwest and California), Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile. Seismically busy countries such as Turkey, Iran and Myanmar are NOT on it - they sit on the Alpide belt, a separate collision zone.
Why is it called the Ring of Fire?
For the volcanoes, not the earthquakes. The belt carries roughly 450 of the world’s volcanoes - about three quarters of the planet’s active and dormant ones - in an almost unbroken horseshoe around the Pacific. The name describes that ring of volcanic arcs; the earthquakes come from the same subduction that feeds them.
How many volcanoes are in the Ring of Fire?
Around 450, which is roughly 75% of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes. Indonesia alone accounts for more than 120 of them, and Japan, the Philippines, Chile and the United States each carry dozens more.
How was the Ring of Fire formed?
By subduction. The dense oceanic crust of the Pacific plate and several smaller plates is pulled beneath the lighter continental plates around it. That descending slab melts at depth and feeds the volcanic arcs above, while the friction along the contact locks and slips as earthquakes. The belt is the surface expression of that process, and it has been running for tens of millions of years.
Where was the biggest Ring of Fire earthquake?
Valdivia, Chile, in May 1960 - magnitude 9.5, the largest earthquake ever instrumentally recorded anywhere. The next largest were also on the belt: Alaska in 1964 (M9.2) and Tohoku, Japan in 2011 (M9.1). Subduction zones are the only settings on Earth that produce earthquakes this large.
Is the Ring of Fire becoming more active?
There is no evidence that it is. Earthquake rates along the belt have been broadly steady for as long as instruments have measured them; what has changed is the number of seismometers and the speed of reporting, so more small events are detected and shared than ever before. Nobody can predict earthquakes, and a run of quakes in one week does not indicate a larger one is coming.
More on how earthquakes work? Read the earthquake Q&A →