While the Mid-Continental Belt (including Vesuvius and Ararat) and the Mid-Atlantic Belt (Iceland) are significant, they represent a much smaller percentage of global volcanism. The Circum-Pacific Belt is dominant because it involves the most active and fastest-moving plate boundaries on the planet. It is here that oceanic trenches and volcanic mountains form in tandem. This belt is the primary focus of international volcanology, as it poses the greatest risk to global populations and provides the most data on how the Earth’s crust is consumed and recycled.