Pacific Ring of Fire
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
Geography (main)
December 6, 2008, 12:00 am
November 18, 2011, 5:04 pm
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Geology (main)
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Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form thePacific Ring of Fire, a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The trenches are shown in blue-green. The volcanic island arcs, although not labelled, are parallel to, and always landward of, the trenches. For example, the island arc associated with the Aleutian Trench is represented by the long chain of volcanoes that make up the Aleutian Islands.
References
This Dynamic Earth: The Story of Plate Tectonics, USGS, 1996
| This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to improve this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion. |
