Where do most earthquakes occur?

The Pacific Ring of Fire is a 40,000 km horseshoe-shaped belt of tectonic plate boundaries encircling the Pacific Ocean. It stretches from New Zealand through Indonesia, Japan, the Kamchatka Peninsula, Alaska, and down the western Americas to Chile. Approximately 90% of the world's earthquakes and 81% of the largest earthquakes occur here. The ring also contains 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes — about 452 volcanoes. It is home to 15 countries. The intense seismic activity is driven by subduction zones where oceanic plates dive beneath continental plates, building up enormous stress. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake (magnitude 9.1) and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami both originated in the ring's zone of influence.