(OPINION) Michael Snyder – While most of us are preoccupied with other matters, the “Ring of Fire” is starting to shake quite dramatically. Within the past couple of days, we have seen numerous volcanoes along the “Ring of Fire” shoot hot volcanic ash thousands of feet into the air. That list of volcanoes includes Popocatepetl in Mexico, Sangay in Ecuador, Klyuchevskaya on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Sabancaya in Peru, Raung in Indonesia, Reventador in Ecuador, and Fuego in Guatemala.
Overall, 28 volcanoes around the globe are currently erupting right now, and most of those are located somewhere along the “Ring of Fire”. If you are not familiar with the “Ring of Fire”, here is a pretty good definition from Wikipedia…
The Ring of Fire (also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, the Rim of Fire, the Girdle of Fire, or the Circum-Pacific belt) is a region around much of the rim of the Pacific Ocean where many volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur. The Ring of Fire is a horseshoe-shaped belt about 40,000 km (25,000 mi) long[1] and up to about 500 km (310 mi) wide.[2]
The Ring of Fire includes the Pacific coasts of South America, North America and Kamchatka, and some islands in the western Pacific Ocean. Although there is consensus among geologists about almost all areas that are included in the Ring of Fire, they disagree about the inclusion or exclusion of a few areas, for example, the Antarctic Peninsula and western Indonesia.
Basically, if you think of a giant band surrounding the exterior of the Pacific Ocean, you will have a good idea of what we are talking about. Every year, the “Ring of Fire” accounts for the vast majority of the seismic activity that happens on our planet. The good news is that most of the major events occur in areas that are not heavily populated, and so usually the damage that is caused is minimal. READ MORE
