Question

What is the Ring of Fire? In a paragraph, explain how the Ring of Fire impacts natural events in Latin America. Which of the two earthquakes discussed in this lesson occurred along the Ring of Fire?

Answer 1

The Ring of Fire is a roughly horseshoe‑shaped zone around the edges of the Pacific Ocean where many of the world’s tectonic plate boundaries—especially subduction zones—produce very high levels of earthquakes and volcanic activity.

In Latin America the Ring of Fire drives much of the region’s geologic hazard profile: the subduction of the Nazca and Cocos plates beneath the South American and Central American plates produces powerful megathrust earthquakes off the west coast of South America and frequent volcanic eruptions along the Andes and Central American volcanic arc; these events generate strong ground shaking, tsunamis, volcanic ash, pyroclastic flows, and landslides that repeatedly damage cities, infrastructure, agriculture and can cause large loss of life.

If your lesson compared the 2010 Chile earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Chile quake occurred along the Ring of Fire (it was a megathrust event on the Nazca–South American plate boundary); the Haiti earthquake did not (it occurred on a transform fault within the Caribbean plate boundary). If you meant two different earthquakes, tell me which ones and I’ll say which—Ring of Fire or not.