Pacific 'Ring of Fire' unleashes yet another disaster

Less than two months ago the central Indonesian region was hit by a 6.3-magnitude quake that killed more than 5,800 people and increased activity at Mount Merapi volcano which was already on high alert for a major eruption.

Each new temblor adds to the infamy of the so-called Ring of Fire, the volatile edges of the north Pacific both on land or undersea that are bounded by the east Asian rim and the west coast of the Americas.

Some of the most dramatic natural disasters of recent history have happened within the Ring's arc, which stretches from Chile, north to Alaska and then west to encompass Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands.

From the nuclear-like explosion of Krakatoa volcano off the coast of Indonesia in 1883 to the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 220,000 across 11 nations in late 2004, the Ring's awesome power is legend.

Indonesia suffered the heaviest casualties in the 2004 tsunami disaster, which was triggered by a 9.3-magnitude submarine earthquake off Sumatra island.

The 2004 tsunami was followed by an 8.7-level quake just 160 kilometres (100 miles) to the south on March 28 2005, killing more than 600.

Other large scale disasters within the Ring were the eruption of Mount St Helens in the United States in 1980, the freak quake that felled much of San Francisco in 1906 and the one that devastated Kobe, Japan, in 1995.