Pacific Ring of Fire a Volatile Place

These are the 15 countries included in the Ring of Fire:

Indonesia, New Zealand, Papa New Guinea, Philippines, Japan, United States, Chile, Canada, Guatemala, Russia, Peru, Solomon Islands, Mexico and Antarctica.

The Aleutian island chain, Andes mountains of South America and the Micronesia tropics make up  the geographical region known as the “Ring of Fire.”

Plates underlying these areas on the Earth are made up of subduction zones. These are zones where oceanic tectonic plate go under a continental plate or another oceanic plate. This results in the increased volcanic and earthquake activity we have seen throughout history in this aptly named “Pacific Ring of Fire”.

The Solomon Islands are a part of this geographically volitile place, which saw a magnitude 8 earthquake in its nearby region on Febuary 6, 2013, and resulted in a Tsunami warning.

Tsunamis are the sometimes seen side effect when earthquakes rattle the ocean. See the definition of what a tsunami means: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tsunami

Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageearth/hellscrust/html/sidebar3.html ; http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/431920/20130206/earthquake-tsunami-australia-solomon-islands.htm