Ring of Fire volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics: the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates, especially subduction in the northern portion. The southern portion is more complex, with a number of smaller tectonic plates in collision with the Pacific plate from the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Bougainville, Tonga, and New Zealand. The presence of a belt of volcanic activity surrounding the Pacific Ocean was observed in the 19th century. "They [the Japanese Islands] are in the line of that immense circle of
Circum-Superior Belt indication of the Circum-Superior Belt is also poorly known; either it contains major regional differences or it is the same throughout the magmatic zone. With the discovery of the Pickle Crow dike swarm throughout the western Superior craton, the likelihood of other 1,880 million year old dike groups throughout the Superior craton remains. This is partly because several dike zones in the Superior craton remain undated. The relationship of the Circum-Superior Belt with similar age magmatism throughout the nearby Trans-Hudson belt and elsewhere on Earth is also unknown. This includes the 1,860 million year old magmatism of the East Kimberly