Ring of Fire: Five Myths About Pacific Rim, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Faults
John Vidale
Alaska Dispatch News /The Washington Post
May 1, 2016
A tragic month along the tectonic subduction zones that surround the Pacific Rim has also been a spellbinding one for seismologists. A magnitude 6.2 quake on April 14 was followed a day later by a magnitude 7.0, together killing about 50 in the Kyushu region of Japan. Less than 24 hours later, a magnitude 7.8 in Ecuador killed more than 650. Major deep earthquakes in Myanmar and Afghanistan in April were also deadly, and a series of quakes this month struck Vanuatu, too. So many earthquakes of at least magnitude 6.5 in a week is quite uncommon, even in the volatile tectonic zone known as the Ring of Fire, which encircles the Pacific Ocean. But the dangers of this region remain widely misunderstood, and myths - the concept that animals can predict earthquakes, for instance, or that the government knows they’re coming but hides the information - stubbornly persist.
More: Ring of Fire: Five myths about Pacific Rim, earthquakes, volcanoes and faults