Why in the news?
Indonesia witnessed a series of eruptions from Mount Ruang, a stratovolcano located in North Sulawesi Province.
About Mount Ruang
- Ruang is situated in the Sangihe Islands arc, North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
- It comprises an island that is 4 by 5 kilometers wide, with a summit containing a partial lava dome reaching an altitude of 725 meters (2,379 ft).
- From its summit, peaks such as Klabat, Siau, and Ternate can be observed in the south, north, and east, respectively.
- The volcano’s first recorded eruption was in 1808.
Why so many volcanic eruptions in Indonesia this year?
- Indonesia, an archipelago of 270 million people, has 120 active volcanoes.
- It is prone to volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.
What is the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’?
- The Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ or Pacific Rim, or the Circum-Pacific Belt, is an area along the Pacific Ocean that is characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
- Volcanic arcs and oceanic trenches partly encircling the Pacific Basin form the so-called Ring of Fire.
- It is home to about 75 per cent of the world’s volcanoes – more than 450 volcanoes.
- Also, about 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur here.
Its spread
- Its length is over 40,000 kilometres and traces from New Zealand clockwise in an almost circular arc covering Tonga, Kermadec Islands, Indonesia.
- It is moving up to the Philippines, Japan, and stretching eastward to the Aleutian Islands, then southward along the western coast of North America and South America.
Seismic activity of the region
- The area is along several tectonic plates including the:
- Pacific plate,
- Philippine Plate,
- Juan de Fuca plate,
- Cocos plate,
- Nazca plate, and
- North American plate.
- The movement of these plates or tectonic activity makes the area witness abundant earthquakes and tsunamis every year.
- Along much of the Ring, tectonic plates move towards each other creating subduction zones.
PYQ:[2018] Consider the following statements:
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 and 3 (c) 3 only (d) 1 and 3 |
