After northern Chile and its surrounding countries experienced an 8.2 earthquake late Tuesday night, concerns regarding the "Ring of Fire" have been raised, ABC News reported.
Known to be a circle of quake-prone areas on the Pacific Rim, the Ring of Fire poses a threat to countries that are easily prone to having earthquakes occur.
After Los Angeles was shaken by an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 last week, it was quickly followed by aftershocks along the California coast.
Another earthquake to happen around the Pacific Ring of Fire was the 9.0 magnitude quake that hit Japan. According to ABC News, it caused the Fukushima meltdown in 2011.
In the coming days, South America will be on alert for aftershocks that have already started following Tuesday night's temblor, according to ABC News.
Los Angeles and South America are two cities that are situated along the so-called Ring of Fire. Under the earth's surface, two plates occasionally bump up against each other, according to Kate Hutton, staff seismologist at California Institute of Technology.
"That affects South America, the California coast, Alaska, Japan, the Philippines. Basically any places around the Pacific Rim are at risk," she said.
However, since California and Chile experienced quakes recently, the current risk is not that large, Hutton said.
"The biggest risk is aftershocks for the 8.2 in the same area where the 8.2 occurred. They'll become less frequent with time, but the risk still exists for days and weeks," Hutton said.
Since there is no way to predict when and where earthquakes may strike next, scientists concluded that it's impossible to know whether the rim areas will be struck by other quakes, she said.
The most susceptible areas on the Ring of Fire include such populated cities as Santiago, Chile; Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Tokyo, Japan; and Lima, Peru, ABC News reported.
"The most obvious aspect of earthquake distribution is its randomness in time," Hutton said, "though not geography."
