Japan issues tsunami advisory after 6.9 magnitude earthquake: What is the ring of fire?

Tsunami warnings advisories have been issued for swells up to one metre high in the Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu, as well as the Kochi Prefecture hard, the agency said. Residers in littoral Kochi were asked to void as a preventative measure.

Here is Ring of fire explained.

The Ring of Fire is a string of hundreds of tinderboxes and earthquake spots which runs along the Pacific Ocean. It's shaped like an element or horseshoe and stretches nearly 40,250 kilometres. The Ring of Fire traces the meeting points of multitudinous monumental plates, including the Eurasian, North American, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Caribbean, Nazca, Antarctic, Indian, Australian, Philippine, and other lower plates, which all encircle the large Pacific Plate, according to a report by National Geographic.

It runs through 15 further countries including the USA, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Guatemala, Russia, Chile, Peru, and the Philippines.

The Ring of Fire substantiations so numerous earthquakes due to constant sliding history, colliding into, or moving over or below each other of the monumental plates. As the edges of these plates are relatively rough, they get stuck with one another while the rest of the plate keeps moving. An earthquake occurs when the plate has moved far enough and the edges unstuck on one of the faults.

The actuality of tinderboxes in the Ring of Fire is also due to the movement of monumental plates. Numerous of the tinderboxes have been formed through a process known as subduction. It takes place when two plates collide with each other and the heavier plate is shoved under another, creating a deep fosse.