What Is the Ring of Fire Earthquake and Which Countries Are Part of It?

A magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck off the coast of northern Japan on Thursday morning, prompting brief transit suspensions and a nationwide emergency task force assembly. Hours earlier, a separate, highly unusual doublet earthquake of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 devastated parts of Venezuela. The Pacific "Ring of Fire" has come back into focus this week after a pair of powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela in close succession, reviving questions about the world's most seismically active belt and the countries that lie within its reach.

What Is the Ring of Fire?

The Ring of Fire, also known as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a horseshoe-shaped zone of earthquakes, volcanoes and tectonic plate boundaries that wraps around most of the Pacific Ocean. It stretches about 40,000 kilometres in length and up to roughly 500 kilometres wide. What Is a Doublet Earthquake? Here’s Why Venezuela Was Hit by Twin Quakes Just 39 Seconds Apart.

The belt is not a single fault or structure. Instead, it represents a near-continuous chain of oceanic trenches and volcanic arcs formed where multiple tectonic plates meet and grind against one another.

What Causes Earthquakes Along the Ring?

The Ring of Fire is shaped by subduction, a process in which dense oceanic plates sink beneath lighter continental plates. As these plates lock and accumulate strain over time, sudden ruptures release that built-up energy as earthquakes, often the largest on the planet. Powerful Earthquakes Rattle Venezuela and Japan; Structural Damage Reported (Watch Video).

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, roughly 90% of all earthquakes worldwide and about 81% of the world's largest earthquakes occur within the Ring of Fire. The belt is also home to between 750 and 915 active or dormant volcanoes, accounting for around two-thirds of the world's total.

Which Countries Lie Within the Ring of Fire?

More than 25 countries sit directly on the Ring of Fire, exposing hundreds of millions of people to earthquake, tsunami and volcanic risk. These nations include:

• Indonesia
• Japan
• The Philippines
• New Zealand
• Chile
• Peru
• Ecuador
• Colombia
• Mexico
• Guatemala
• Costa Rica
• The United States (Alaska, Hawaii and the Pacific Coast states)
• Canada (British Columbia)
• Russia (Kamchatka)
• Papua New Guinea

Some geologists also include parts of Antarctica's South Shetland Islands within the belt, owing to volcanic activity linked to a nearby subduction zone.

Notable Earthquakes Linked to the Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire has produced some of the most destructive earthquakes in recorded history. These include the 1960 Valdivia earthquake in Chile, with a magnitude between 9.4 and 9.6, the largest ever recorded; the 1964 Alaska earthquake, at magnitude 9.2; and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan, at magnitude 9.0 to 9.1.

The Philippines, which sits on the belt, has also recorded several major earthquakes in recent years. An offshore magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off Mindanao on June 8, 2026, killing at least 35 people, while two earthquakes of magnitude 7.4 and 6.8 hit the same region hours apart in October 2025.

Is the Ring of Fire Becoming More Active?

Experts caution against reading short-term spikes in earthquakes or eruptions as a sign of unusual danger. Geologists note that activity along the belt is constant, with periods of relative calm followed by clusters of seismic events, consistent with how subduction zones naturally behave over time.

Monitoring agencies continue to track seismic activity along the belt using satellite data and ground sensors, though scientists maintain that earthquakes themselves remain impossible to predict with precision.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 25, 2026 01:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).