Robert Carry age 13, of  Texas for his question:

What is the fire belt of volcanoes?

Find the relief map of the world in your gift encyclopedia, The seas are blue* the plains are greens the plateaus yellow and the high mountains brown. You may notice that two huge ridges of mountain country run around the globe, One runs north‑south, Another runs roughly eastwest, These areas include the earth’s newest and highest mountains, They are high because time arid weather have not yet worn down their proud peaks!

Put your finger on the Aleutian Islands of the north Pacific, Now trace eastward and down the west coast of the Americas to Cape Horn, Trace another line beginning at Gibraltar where the Mediterranean joins the Atlantic, Go eastward through the Mediterranean region and up through northern India, Dip down and up again along the western edge of the Pacific 'to Japan,

Your finger tracings have taken" you over the mountain building areas of the world. You have also covered the earthquake belts, And you have also covered the fire belt •• the earth’s volcanic areas, Most of the 400 to 500 active volcanoes are in these two belts, A few but not many, volcanoes stand alone.

There are reasons why all this activity centers in certain areas The earth wears an outer coat of rocky crust, It forms the seabeds and the ground on which we stand, Its average depth is about 40 miles, Below it are layers of denser rocks, The rocky coat however, does not seem to fit the inside of the earth snugly, Even if it did, it would not remain so for long, Wind and weathers toting tons of earth and soil are forever changing its weight, These changes in weight and pressure are felt clear through the earth’s crust to the dense layers below,

This is thought to cause stresses in certain areas, Mountains are pushed up. Miles underground masses of moving rocks cause trembling earthquakes. In these areas the crust weakens bends and cracks.  Each square inch of dense rock below is capped tight under a ton or two of rocky crust.  When the crust cracks or weakens terrific heat is generated far below,

The roots of volcanoes are in these areas 30 to 40 miles below ground. Release of pressure in a weak spot or fault sets the. deep rock melting into a pocket of magma, The magma seethes upward like soda pop coming out of an uncorked bottle, The red hot lava is full of steams gases and smoke, It runs up the cracks or weak spots forcing a vent to the surface and a volcano erupts,

The stresses in the earth's crust follow the long trails of the ridges where mountains are being formed. These are the most active areas of the earth's crust. Activity below causes the earthquakes,' Faults and weak spots heat up the deep magma and cause volcanoes ‑ a belt of volcanoes following the belt of earth makes and new mountains.