<P> The Ring of Fire is a major area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur . In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and plate movements . It has 452 volcanoes (more than 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes). The Ring of Fire is sometimes called the circum - Pacific belt . </P> <P> About 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire . All but three of the world's 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire . The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics: the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates, especially subduction in the northern portion . The southern portion is more complex, with a number of smaller tectonic plates in collision with the Pacific plate from the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Bougainville, Tonga, and New Zealand . </P> <P> The presence of a belt of volcanic activity surrounding the Pacific Ocean was observed in the 19th century . "They (the Japanese Islands) are in the line of that immense circle of volcanic development which surrounds the shores of the Pacific from Tierra del Fuego around to the Moluccas ." (Matthew Perry, Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 1852 - 54, Introduction, Section I, "Name, Extent, and Geography") </P>

Hawaii is in the center of the ring of fire and is caused by