Ring of Fire!

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash

What a wonderful song!

The Ring of Fire film looks at volcanism as it occurs along the Pacific Rim, also known as the Ring of Fire. The Pacific Ring of Fire runs from the southern tip of South America to Alaska, then to eastern Russia south to Southeast Asia and New Zealand. According to Wikipedia, about 81% of the largest earthquakes have occurred in this area. Because of the numerous plate boundaries, many which are subduction boundaries, there are many disturbances like earthquakes and the formation of volcanoes in these areas.

The picture above is Mt. Rainier located in western-central Washington. 

One of the sections of the video focuses on the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens in Washington State in 1980.  Most of the volcano was destroyed in the explosion, which resulted in a pyroclastic flow decimating a wide ecosystem. I traveled to Washington State in early 2000 and found the state to be quite beautiful.  We visited both Mt. Saint Helens and Mt. Rainier, which are both massive national parks. Actually both of these volcanoes, Mt. Rainier being a dormant one, are part of the same chain, the Cascade Range which consists of a lot of seismic activity.