Is THIS how the world will end? Scientists reveal exactly what would happen if the 25,000-mile 'Ring of Fire' chain of volcanoes erupted - with catastrophic consequences

On Wednesday, Russia was rocked by one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded.

Now, experts have warned that the resulting tsunami waves which hit Japan, Hawaii and the US West Coast might not be the only consequences of this 8.8 magnitude tremor.

Scientists claim that the earthquake could trigger volcanic eruptions along the 'Ring of Fire' - the 25,000-mile chain of volcanoes that stretches around the Pacific Ocean.

While it is almost certainly impossible in reality, if this entire volcanic chain were to erupt at once, the results would be utterly cataclysmic.

The Ring of Fire is home to over 425 volcanoes, making up 75 per cent of all active volcanic sites on Earth.

This includes some of the world's largest volcanoes, such as Mount St Helens in the US, Mount Fuji in Japan, and Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait.

Professor Valentin Troll, a volcanologist from Upsala University, told Daily Mail that the impacts of these combined eruptions range from 'local ash fall and associated infrastructure problems to air traffic issues and long-term climate issues due to large amounts of particles sent into the atmosphere.'

Professor Troll adds: 'If this came about, which is not very likely at this point, it could take the form of a volcanic winter for several years after the eruptions.'

Can an earthquake trigger volcanic eruptions? 

Scientists are only just starting to understand the connections between volcanic activity and earthquakes.

However, in recent years, geologists have found a number of cases where it looks like earthquakes have triggered volcanic eruptions.

Volcanic eruptions occur along the Ring of Fire, where one tectonic plate is forced under another, allowing magma to rise up from the Earth's liquid mantle.

As this magma rises into a volcano's magma chamber, trapped gases are compressed to enormous pressures, which explode out during an eruption.

Scientists now think big earthquakes might create new openings for even more magma to fill the chamber or disturb these gas bubbles, making an eruption more likely.

Professor Troll says: 'Seismic shockwaves can travel from an earthquake epicentre for many hundreds to thousands of kilometres and can thus shake up volcanoes and volcanic systems that are already close to an eruption.

'This can, in turn, cause higher frequencies of volcanic activity in affected regions.'

Although more evidence is needed to be certain, some experts think this might have already happened following Wednesday's Russian earthquake.

Data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) showed the earthquake struck about 84 miles east-southeast of Kamchatska, Russia, at around 7:24 pm EST, marking the sixth strongest earthquake ever.

Shortly afterwards, observers noted explosive activity and streams of lava descending the western slopes of the Klyuchevskoy volcano in Kamchatka.

Located approximately 280 miles north of the regional capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Klyuchevskaya Sopka is one of the tallest volcanoes in the world, rising 15,584 feet in Russia's Kamchatka region.

Dr Morgan Jones, a volcano expert from Umeå University in Sweden, told Daily Mail: 'Klyuchevskoy is a volcano that erupts regularly and the ground deformation could well have destabilised the magma chamber.'

What would happen if all the volcanoes in the Ring of Fire erupted at once? 

This idea raises the unnerving possibility that a large enough seismic event could release enough energy to destabilise magma chambers all along the Ring of Fire.

If this were to happen, the results would be disastrous both for those in the immediate vicinity of a volcano and all over the world.

Volcanic eruptions are classified according to the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI), on which a VEI of one results in 10,000 cubic metres of material being flung into the air.

Each successive number corresponds to 10 times more material ejected from the blast.

The largest eruption ever recorded, with a VEI of 7, was Mount Tambora in 1815, which ejected 160 cubic kilometres of material into the atmosphere with an explosion that was heard over 1,600 miles (2,600 km) away.

Over the last 10,000 years, there have only been 13 eruptions with a VEI of seven; 11 of those took place on the Ring of Fire.

Should the Ring of Fire erupt, people living all over the world would be blasted by eruptions on this scale.

Anyone living near these eruptions would be at risk from falling rocks, toxic gases, deadly mudslides, and boiling hot pyroclastic flows.

With the Ring of Fire passing through 15 countries, these eruptions would no doubt be enormously destructive on the local level.

However, the more long-lasting and dangerous impacts would be felt on a global scale.

As volcanoes erupt, they inject huge quantities of sulphur and dust into the upper atmosphere, which can block out the sun for years after the initial blast.

Following the eruption of Mount Tambora, temperatures in the northern hemisphere fell by 0.5°C (0.9°F), leading to the 'year without summer'.

If the entire Ring of Fire were to erupt, the results would be even more pronounced.

Professor Troll says: 'I would expect two to five years of after effects with average temperature reductions of possibly up to 1°C (1.8°F).

'The summers would be wet and cold, and crops would not grow well at all for a few years. In Europe, we would likely export the hunger by buying food elsewhere, but in less favoured regions, famine may become a consequence.'

However, this would not be the worst climate disaster the world has ever faced and likely wouldn't be an extinction-level event.

Dr Jonathan Paul, an Earth scientist at Royal Holloway, University of London, told Daily Mail: 'If - and it's a huge if - all the volcanoes around the Ring of Fire erupted simultaneously, the resulting ash still would not be likely to induce a global winter.

'For comparison, the global winter around 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs resulted from a meteorite strike that released several trillions times the amount of energy as would every single Ring of Fire volcano erupting.'

Is this likely to happen? 

Thankfully, there is almost no chance that this will ever happen in reality.

Partly, this is because an earthquake would need to be on an absolutely apocalyptic scale to trigger eruptions across the entire Ring of Fire.

Dr Paul says: 'The Ring of Fire is absolutely huge, while the immediate effects of an earthquake are quite localised, to within around 100 km.'

Over the last 100 years, there have been three or four earthquakes of this magnitude, but they have only occasionally affected volcanoes very close to the source.

Professor Lisa McNeil, an expert on plate tectonics from the University of Southampton, told Daily Mail: 'We have had several large earthquakes worldwide in the last 20 years and they did not trigger widespread volcanic eruptions. 

'On average, an earthquake of the magnitude of the Kamchatka earthquake or higher happens about every 10 years and even if we go back several 100 years, very widespread volcanic eruptions have not happened.'

Additionally, not every volcano is on a 'hair trigger' that could be tripped by a seismic event. 

Volcanic activity requires months, if not years, of buildup for the magma chambers to store enough pressure that they become primed for eruption. 

Scientists therefore believe that earthquakes can only trigger eruptions if the volcano is in a state where it is close to eruption anyway. 

For example, Klyuchevskoy had actually been actively erupting for months prior to the earthquake, which may have set off the latest activity.

'The earthquake was the trigger that prompted the volcano to actually erupt, but it may have erupted in the coming days, weeks or months anyway,' says Professor McNeil.

This means there is absolutely no scenario in which every volcano along the Ring of Fire could erupt all at once, no matter how large the earthquake was.