A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1068 entries
Ring of Fire
The horseshoe-shaped belt of earthquake epicenters and active volcanoes that encircles the Pacific Ocean, running from New Zealand through Indonesia, Japan, Kamchatka, Alaska, and down the western coasts of North and South America. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s active volcanoes and 90 percent of its earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire. It is not a single feature but a chain of subduction zones, transform faults, and hot spots — the Pacific plate’s boundary with the world.
Etymology
Ring from Old English hring (circular band), from Proto-Germanic hringaz, from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to curve, to bend.” Fire from Old English fȳr, from Proto-Germanic fōr-, from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂ur (fire). The term for the Pacific’s volcanic belt dates to the late 19th century.