THE RING OF FIRE

PACIFIC RING
THE RING OF FIRE IS 25000 MILES (40,000KM)
LONG. IT STRETCHES FROM THE SOUTHERN
TIP OF SOUTH AMERICA TO NEW ZEALAND.
ON AVERAGE, PLATES MOVE AQS MUCH AS YOUR
FINGERNAILS GROW-----ABOUT 1.5 IN. (3.8CM) PER YEAR.








MOUNT St. Helens is in the most explosive area on earth. the area is called the ring of fire.Under the pacific Ocean,plates move and collide. These movements made a chain of 452 volcanoes around the ocean;s edges. Underwater eruptions and earthquakes in the Ring of fire can cause tsunamis.
The state of Hawaii sits on the pacific plate. Hawaii's volcanoes are unusual because they are not at the edge of a plate, like most volcanoes are. They are in the middle of one;
Hawaii is on top of a volcanic hot spot. As the pacific plate slowly moves, the hot spot spews lava. Over millions of years, layers of cooled lava built up and up.This made the first Hawaiian island.
Then, as the plate kept moving, the next island was formed island after island was created in this way.
Up on the surface, there are several volcanoes. Mauna loa and kilauea are the most active. They are still almost directly above the hot spot.Krakatau, in the ring of fire, erupted in 1883. It was the loudest explosion ever.The eruption and the tsunami that followed killed at least 36000 people.
Even more powerful was the the eruption of nearby Mount Tambora, in 1815. Tambora's pyroclastic flows of lava, ash, gases, and debris killed 12000 people right away.
But the worst from Tambora was yet to come by the summer of 1816, people around the world knew that something strange was happening with the weather. It was cold. very cold.
On june 7, it snowed in the northeastern US.ALLthat summer, every time crops looked like they might survive, frost would kill them. Earth's temperature dropped about 5 degrees that year.
The volcanic winter destroyed cropes. Across the world, people and livestock starved. The cold weather was caused partly by the eruption. Ash and gases blocked the sun's rays for many months.