Plate Tectonics Ring of Fire Activity

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Students plot the location of the Ring of Fire using locations of REAL earthquakes and volcanoes. For added interest, the data is not just simple coordinates. Each volcano’s name and country is given, and each earthquake includes the date, magnitude, and country.

In this activity, students will:

• “Work up” the World Map by adding continent labels and identifying the equator and prime meridian. (You may want to lead them through this.)
• Plot earthquakes and volcanoes on the World Map in different colors. The coordinates effectively show the pattern of the Ring of Fire.
• Answer follow-up analysis questions.

Two sets of data are included. One set includes 32 coordinates EACH for volcanoes and earthquakes, and the other (to save time or for modification) includes 20 coordinates each for volcanoes and earthquakes.

For this activity, you will print 3 pages.

1. World Map

2. Instructions and Analysis Student Sheet

3. Volcano/Earthquake Data (I make just one class set and reuse them year-to-year.)

NGSS Standards Addressed: MS-ESS2-1, MS-ESS2-2, MS-ESS3-2

NGSS Science & Engineering Practice: Analyzing and interpreting data

Teacher Notes:

• INCLUDES ANSWER KEY
• Please note: This ring of fire activity is NOT editable.
• Check out more resources in the plate tectonics section of our shop!