Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Understanding the origins of the Ring of Fire, the most seismically active place on Earth, is famously difficult as geologic evidence is destroyed in the process. Although evidence for this theory is based in the geologic record, the mechanism that causes this spread is still unknown. One idea is that the eastern ‘Ring of Fire’ initially formed through a process known as subduction “invasion” or “infection” where subduction—that is one tectonic plate sliding beneath another—sort of spreads like a contagion from one ocean plate to another. Related Story The 15 Most Dangerous Volcanoes in the World“A difficulty in recognizing ancient subduction invasion is that it may not leave a distinctive record,” the paper reads. Earlier this year, Duarte published his own paper detailing how the Gibraltar Subduction Zone—where the African plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate—is infecting the Atlantic.