Top View Of The Ocean Floor Surrounding A Mid Ocean Ridge

A mid ocean ridge mor is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics it typically has a depth of 2 600 meters 8 500 ft and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin this feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary the rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its.

Top view of the ocean floor surrounding a mid ocean ridge.

This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the. The mid ocean ridges of the world are connected and form a single global mid oceanic ridge system that is part of every ocean. The average depth to the crest top of the ridge is 2500 m but it rises above sea level in iceland and is more than 4000 m deep in the cayman trough. It is a central feature of seafloor terrain that is more varied and more spectacular than almost anything found on dry land and includes a collection of volcanic ridges rifts fault zones and other geologic.

Definition of the mid ocean ridge. The global mid ocean ridge system is the largest single volcanic feature on the earth encircling it like the seams of a baseball. Older crust is recycled back into the mantle elsewhere on the globe typically where plates collide. All the world s oceans have a mid ocean ridge beneath them.

Image courtesy of haymon et al noaa oe whoi the mid ocean ridge is a continuous range of undersea volcanic mountains that encircles the globe almost entirely underwater. Bathymetric image of the east pacific rise a mid oceanic ridge located along the floor of the pacific ocean. A mid ocean ridge marks the boundary between two tectonic plates which are moving apart. Mid ocean ridges are geologically important because they occur along the kind of plate boundary where new ocean floor is created as the plates spread apart.

Here the earth s crust is spreading creating new ocean floor and literally renewing the surface of our planet. The mid oceanic ridge system is the longest mountain range in the world. This feature usually follows the center of the ocean as basalt spreads evenly to both sides of the ridge. The mid ocean ridge is the most extensive chain of mountains on earth stretching nearly 65 000 kilometers 40 390 miles and with more than 90 percent of the mountain range lying in the deep ocean.

Thus the mid ocean ridge is also. Much of the mid ocean ridge system remains unexplored because of the challenges involved in reaching these inhospitable zones. A mid ocean ridge mor is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics it typically has a depth of 2 600 meters 8 500 ft and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin this feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary the rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its. Across iceland all the way to the bottom of the atlantic near.

A mid ocean ridge or mid oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range formed by plate tectonics.