What is the name of the Pacific Rim region with many volcanoes?

The Pacific Rim region with many volcanoes is called the Ring of Fire. Also known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, it is a broad tectonic belt surrounding much of the Pacific Ocean.

The Ring of Fire is not a single continuous volcanic structure. It formed mainly where oceanic tectonic plates are forced beneath neighboring plates at subduction zones. As slabs descend into the mantle, they contribute to melting and generate volcanic arcs, deep ocean trenches and powerful earthquakes.

The belt stretches for roughly 40,000 kilometers and includes volcanic regions in the Andes, Central America, western North America, Alaska, Kamchatka, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Around 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur along or near this active zone, though the exact boundaries vary by geological definition.

A common misconception is that every Pacific volcano belongs to the Ring of Fire. Hawaii, for example, is generally excluded because its volcanoes are produced by a mantle hotspot rather than the subduction processes that define most of the Ring. The Andes Mountains are part of the belt in places, but they are not its name.