WEBVTT - What Is the Pacific Ring of Fire?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here.

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<v Speaker 1>When the explorer Ferdinand Magellan visited Earth's biggest ocean in

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<v Speaker 1>fifteen twenty, he found the waters pleasantly calm, and that's

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<v Speaker 1>why to this day we call it the Pacific Ocean,

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<v Speaker 1>a pacific meaning peaceful, which is ironic considering that there's

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<v Speaker 1>a vast loop of volcanoes and seismic activity running through

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<v Speaker 1>and around the Pacific Ocean. This is the infamous Ring

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<v Speaker 1>of Fire, a perimeter some twenty five thousand miles long.

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<v Speaker 1>That's forty thousand kilometers where most of the world's earthquakes

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<v Speaker 1>and volcanic vents take place. Today, let's talk about how

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<v Speaker 1>it works. Spoiler alert, it's got nothing to do with

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<v Speaker 1>the love song made popular by Johnny Cash. Unfortunately. The

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<v Speaker 1>Ring of Fire hugs the western coast of South, Central and

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<v Speaker 1>North America, spans Alaska's Aleutian Island Arc through Rushes cam

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<v Speaker 1>Chocup Peninsula, then shoots down through Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia,

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<v Speaker 1>pap New Guinea, and New Zealand. The ring completes itself

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<v Speaker 1>by going through northwestern Antarctica, which has a number of volcanoes.

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<v Speaker 1>All of these areas touch on the Pacific tectonic Plate

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<v Speaker 1>and a few smaller plates that brush up against it. Okay,

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<v Speaker 1>you and I live on top of the Earth's lithosphere,

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<v Speaker 1>our home world's rocky exterior crust. But this layer isn't

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<v Speaker 1>some rigid, single piece shell. Instead, it's made up of

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<v Speaker 1>about fifteen to twenty tectonic plates depending on who you ask,

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<v Speaker 1>that fit together pretty snugly and slowly drift over the

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<v Speaker 1>molten materials that lay deeper inside our planet. A heat

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<v Speaker 1>from the Earth's core causes them to move against one another.

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<v Speaker 1>Boundaries between these plates come in three major categories, convergent, divergent,

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<v Speaker 1>and transform, and the Ring of Fire includes examples of

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<v Speaker 1>each one. Let's start with divergent boundaries. These occur when

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<v Speaker 1>two neighboring plates move away from one another. In those areas,

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<v Speaker 1>molten magma rises up from beneath the plates and eventually

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<v Speaker 1>hardens to create new crust. Under the Pacific Ocean, the

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<v Speaker 1>huge Pacific Plate is being pushed away from four of

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<v Speaker 1>its smaller counterparts by the powerful East Pacific Rise. This

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<v Speaker 1>is a strip of heavy activity that parallels the coast

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<v Speaker 1>of South America a couple thousand miles out, stretching from

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<v Speaker 1>the Gulf of California down through Easter Island, approaching Antarctica

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<v Speaker 1>and New Zealand. Around Easter Island, which is offshore of Chile,

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<v Speaker 1>we see the fastest expansion of the Earth's crust in

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<v Speaker 1>the world, over six inches a year, or about one

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and fifty millimeters. Divergent boundaries also create hydrothermal vents

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<v Speaker 1>deep in the ocean that spew material and heat into

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<v Speaker 1>the water, and researchers have found fascinating ecosystems there that,

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<v Speaker 1>unlike any other ecosystem on Earth, doesn't have photosynthesis as

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<v Speaker 1>its base. These creatures live off the vents independent of

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<v Speaker 1>the Sun's energy. Next, let's talk about transform boundaries, areas

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<v Speaker 1>where two plates sideswipe each other up. In California proper,

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<v Speaker 1>we have the San Andreas Fault. That's a classic transform boundary.

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<v Speaker 1>The state of California is straddled across the Pacific Plate

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<v Speaker 1>and the North American Plate. The North American Plate is

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<v Speaker 1>headed south, the Pacific is moving north. A friction between

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<v Speaker 1>them causes the earthquakes that California is infamous for. But

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<v Speaker 1>what happens when plates collide head on. That's a convergent

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<v Speaker 1>boundary wherein one plate will be driven underneath the other.

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<v Speaker 1>This point of contact is called a subduction zone. The

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<v Speaker 1>Pacific Plate has a subduct zone at its northwestern rim,

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<v Speaker 1>along its boundary with the Philippine Sea Plate, which is

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<v Speaker 1>riding up over the Pacific Plate. This interaction caused part

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<v Speaker 1>of the Philippine Plate to break off millions of years ago,

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<v Speaker 1>forming a tiny plate in between called the Mariana which

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<v Speaker 1>is also riding over the Pacific Plate. These interactions forged

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<v Speaker 1>the Mariana Islands, one thousand miles east of the Philippine

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<v Speaker 1>Archipelago and created the yawning underwater chasm called the Mariana Trench,

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<v Speaker 1>which contains the deepest point of any ocean on Earth.

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<v Speaker 1>Its floor, named the Challenger Deep, lies some thirty six

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<v Speaker 1>thousand feet below sea level. That's around eleven thousand meters.

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<v Speaker 1>For contrast, the peak of Mount Everest is only twenty

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<v Speaker 1>nine thousand feet above sea level or nine thousand meters,

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<v Speaker 1>which means the Mariana Trench is significantly deeper than Everest

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<v Speaker 1>is tall. Around this and other subduction zones, researchers are

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<v Speaker 1>investigating reservoirs of hot water moving up from the ocean

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<v Speaker 1>floor as a potential source of geothermal energy. Solar and

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<v Speaker 1>wind power grab more headlines, but engineers are also working

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<v Speaker 1>on harnessing these underwater geothermal sources of cleaner energy. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>across the ocean, between the southeast part of the Pacific

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<v Speaker 1>Plate and the South American Continental Plate, there's a smaller

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<v Speaker 1>oceanic plate called the Nasca. At this very moment, the

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<v Speaker 1>Nasca Plate is being driven underneath the South American Plate.

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<v Speaker 1>The convergence process sets off a lot of earthquakes in

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<v Speaker 1>western South America. It's also uplifting mountains and sending up

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<v Speaker 1>magma to feed volcanoes. There are some four hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>fifty two volcanoes, both active and dormant, spread out across

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<v Speaker 1>throwing a fire, including plenty of vents and fissures that

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<v Speaker 1>arept underwater. As far as we know, these account for

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<v Speaker 1>seventy five percent of all volcanic activity in the world.

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<v Speaker 1>The area also accounts for around ninety percent of the

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<v Speaker 1>planet's earthquakes. Some of the worst natural disasters in recorded history,

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<v Speaker 1>like the eighteen eighty three Krakatoa eruption, the nineteen sixty

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<v Speaker 1>Chile earthquake and the two thousand and four Indian Ocean

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<v Speaker 1>tsunami had their origins along the Ring of Fires tectonic boundaries. However,

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<v Speaker 1>there are so many small plates and different interaction zones

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<v Speaker 1>involved in the Ring that any disasters that happen on

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<v Speaker 1>opposite sides of it are just coincidence. A case in point,

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<v Speaker 1>a series of earthquakes rocked Japan's Kshu Island in April

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<v Speaker 1>of twenty sixteen. That same month, Chile suffered a quake

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<v Speaker 1>with a Richter scale magnitude of seven point two. The

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<v Speaker 1>epicenters were almost ten thousand miles apart for sixteen thousand kilometers.

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<v Speaker 1>Although a strong earthquake can trigger weaker ones in nearby places,

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<v Speaker 1>the gap between Chile and Japan is far too big

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<v Speaker 1>for the ethquakes to be linked. After all, the Pacific

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<v Speaker 1>is the world's largest ocean, though it may not always

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<v Speaker 1>retain that title do in no small part to all

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<v Speaker 1>the subduction zones on its flanks. The Pacific might close

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<v Speaker 1>within the next two hundred and fifty million years. As Asia, Australia,

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<v Speaker 1>and the Americas converge. Planet Earth may wind up with

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<v Speaker 1>a new super continent not too dissimilar from the giant

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<v Speaker 1>land mass called Pangaea that started breaking apart around two

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<v Speaker 1>hundred million years ago. But that's just one hypothesis. Some

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<v Speaker 1>geologists think that the Atlantic or the Arctic oceans are

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to disappear than the Pacific. We'll all just

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<v Speaker 1>have to wait and find out. Today's episode is based

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<v Speaker 1>on the article seven hot facts about the Pacific Ring

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<v Speaker 1>of Fire on HowStuffWorks dot com, written by Mark Mancini.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>hostiff works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang

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