The deadly magnitude 8.1 earthquake that struck off the coast of Mexico is located along in the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area that is suddenly showing intense seismic activity.
In the 24 hours and following the great mexico quake, several sizable earthquakes have struck all along the Ring of Fire, most notably, a 6.1 that struck Japan near the Fukushima nuclear plant.
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In the last 24 hours, as seen in the above picture, earthquakes continue to strike all around the Ring of Fire. Below are some of the more sizeable tumblers;
M 6.1 – 281km ESE of Kamaishi, Japan
M 5.7 – 98km NNE of Kemeduran, Indonesia
M 5.9 – 165km N of Finschhafen, Papua New Guinea
M 6.4 – 85km NNW of Isangel, Vanuatu
M 5.3 – 27km ENE of Arequipa, Peru
The 40,000-kilometer (25,000-mile) area stretches from the boundary of the Pacific Plate and the smaller plates such as the Philippine Sea plate to the Cocos and Nazca Plates that line the edge of the Pacific Ocean, according to CNN.
About 80% of all earthquakes strike in the Ring of Fire, according to Hongfeng Yang, a seismologist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
People are most at risk in Chile, Japan, the US west coast, and other island nations including the Solomon Islands to the western seaboard of North and South Americas.
They are at risk because they lie on subduction zones that are locked so tectonic energy must be released by large earthquakes.
“It takes tens of thousands of years for the energy to build up, but only a matter of seconds for it to be released,” said Hongfeng Yang, a seismologists at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.