Ring Of Fire

A broad, horseshoe-shaped seismically active belt of earthquake epicenters, volcanoes, and tectonic plate boundaries that surrounds the Pacific basin is known as the Ring of Fire, sometimes known as the Circum-Pacific Belt or the Pacific Ring of Fire. The belt follows chains of island arcs like Tonga and New Hebrides, the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines, Japan, the Kuril Islands, and the Aleutians for the majority of its 40,000 km (24,900 miles) length, as well as other arc-shaped geomorphic features like the western coast of North America and the Andes Mountains. 

 

The belt's whole length is marked by volcanoes, which is why it is known as the "Ring of Fire." The belt is framed by a number of deep ocean troughs on the oceanic side, with continental landmasses behind. The vast majority of earthquakes, most of the greatest earthquakes, and over 75% of the world's volcanoes all take place within the Ring of Fire. The huge Pacific Plate and the smaller Philippine, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, and Nazca plates are just a few of the tectonic plates encircled by the Ring of Fire. The continental plates that they border are subducting under many of these plates. 

 

However, along plate intersections known as transform faults, the Pacific Plate is sliding past the North American Plate along much of North America's western coast. Since 1800, the Mount Tambora (1815), Krakatoa (1883), Novarupta (1912), Mount Saint Helens (1980), Mount Ruiz (1985), and Mount Pinatubo eruptions have all been significant volcanic occurrences within the Ring of Fire (1991). 

 

Several of the greatest earthquakes in recorded history have occurred inside the Ring of Fire, including:

•    1960 Chile earthquake, 

•    1964 Alaska earthquake, 

•    2010 Chile earthquake, 

•    2011 Japan earthquake, and

•    2004 earthquake that triggered the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

The Aleutian Islands are a group of tiny islands that lie between the Pacific Ocean's main body and the Bering Sea in the north (south). They stretch 1,100 miles (1,800 km) in an arc from the point of the Alaska Peninsula to Attu Island in Alaska, the United States. The Aleutians cover 6,821 square miles overall (17,666 square km). The Aleutian Islands are an extension of the Aleutian Range in Alaska and are part of the circum-Pacific network of volcanoes known as the Ring of Fire. 

 

The majority of the islands have volcanic origins, and certain volcanoes, like Shishaldin Volcano (9,372 feet [2,857 meters]), which is located close to the center of Unimak Island, have continued to erupt. The approaches are hazardous, and the coastlines are stony and weathered by the waves. Most of the time, the ground abruptly climbs from the coastlines to imposing mountains. The Unimak, Umnak, Amukta, and Seguam passes are the principal navigational routes through the chain. The climate of the archipelago is marked by relatively constant temperatures throughout the year, strong winds, a lot of precipitation (mainly rainfall), and lingering fog. 

 

The Aleutian Islands are almost entirely devoid of trees, yet they are lushly covered in grasses, sedges, and several blooming plants. Established in 1980, the 4,250 square miles (11,000 square km) Aleutian Islands unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge stretches between the Unimak (east) and Attu (west) islands. Tens of millions of seabirds, including auklets, puffins, murres, and fulmars, use the Aleutian Islands as a place to nest. The refuge has safeguarded the way of life of the indigenous Unangan (Aleut) people, who have always survived on fishing and hunting, by protecting the islands' wildlife, particularly sea otters, sea lions, and seals, and by controlling kills. Many people have found work rearing blue foxes for the fur trade. 

 

The Unangan (Aleuts) were the only people to live on the islands for about 8,000 years, and by the time of Russian exploration, there were perhaps 25,000 Unangan dispersed across the Aleutian Islands. Russians dispatched the Dane Vitus Bering and the Russian Aleksey Chirikov on a discovery-seeking expedition in 1741. Following a storm that caused their ships to become separated, Chirikov found a number of the eastern islands while Bering found a number of the western islands. While on board, Bering passed away, but some members of the crew lived and returned to Russia with tales of the region's profusion of fur-bearing animals. 

 

The Komandor Islands soon saw a hunter influx from Siberia, and they progressively made their way through the Aleutian Islands to the Alaskan peninsula. As a result, Russia established itself in North America, but at the cost of massacring, displacing, and enslaving the Unangan people. In 1867, Russia surrendered the islands to the United States together with the remainder of Alaska (the Alaska Purchase). Japanese troops invaded and captured the Attu and Kiska islands in June 1942, during World War II. 

 

Shortly after, American soldiers started making plans to drive the Japanese out. After a brief but brutal struggle in May 1943, Attu was retaken. However, before American soldiers could arrive in August, the Japanese left Kiska. On Unalaska Island, where Russians established a hamlet in the 1770s, is Unalaska (Dutch Harbor), which is also the largest and oldest permanent community. The Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension in Unalaska, one of the earliest Russian churches in the United States (the earliest parts of the building date to 1825), has a sizable collection of religious artefacts and icons. 

 

The city served as the former base of operations for a sizable U.S. Coast Guard fleet that patrolled the sealing grounds of the Pribilof Islands to the north. In the 1760s, a massacre of Unangan people took place as a result of disputes between indigenous Unangan people and Russian fur traders. With extensive fish processing facilities on land and factory ships offshore, Unalaska is currently one of the leading fishing ports in the United States, particularly for walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma). A naval station operated in Adak (formerly known as Adak Station) from 1942 to 1997. 

 

The Attu campaign was launched from this location in May 1943. Adak, which had about 6,000 residents when the military post was shut down, used to be Alaska's sixth-largest city. On Adak Island, including the region of the former military station, almost 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of land were given to the Aleut Corporation in 2004, an Alaska Native entity created in accordance with the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. 

 

On December 8, 2004, a freighter on Unalaska Island broke apart, releasing more than 60,000 tons of soybeans and an estimated 320,000 to 360,000 gallons (1,210,000 to 1,360,000 liters) of fuel oil and diesel gasoline into the ocean. The pollution that resulted killed thousands of fish and birds. Cleanup took more than a year and a half, and by 2009, the ship's owners and operators had paid the state more than $110 million in damage costs.