What is the Mid Atlantic Ridge and why is it important?
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. Thus the mid-ocean ridge is also known as a “spreading center” or a “divergent plate boundary.” The plates spread apart at rates of 1 cm to 20 cm per year.
What type of landform is the Mid Atlantic Ridge?
volcanic mountain range
Is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge a subduction zone?
A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics. Ridge-push occurs when the weight of the ridge pushes the rest of the tectonic plate away from the ridge, often towards a subduction zone. At the subduction zone, “slab-pull” comes into effect.
Where is the Central Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is a mostly underwater mountain range in the Atlantic Ocean that runs from 87°N -about 333km south of the North Pole- to subantarctic Bourvet island at 54°S.
What is the average height of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
2,351 m
What types of life have been discovered near mid-ocean ridges?
Over 300 endemic species have been found near the vents, including corals, clams, shrimps, crabs and the now famous giant, red-tipped tubeworms, 4 m tall creatures that flourish in waters close to the hot springs.
What is the temperature of the mid-ocean ridge?
Correlations among the three data sets revealed that temperature deep in the mantle varied between around 1,300 and 1,550 degrees Celsius underneath about 61,000 kilometers of ridge terrain.
Where are ocean ridges located?
Principal characteristics. Oceanic ridges are found in every ocean basin and appear to girdle Earth. The ridges rise from depths near 5 km (3 miles) to an essentially uniform depth of about 2.6 km (1.6 miles) and are roughly symmetrical in cross section. They can be thousands of kilometres wide.
What causes the formation of offsets in the mid ocean ridge system?
– Offsets occur where two plates slide past each other. – Segments of a mid-ocean ridge are initially aligned. Transform faults form when different segments spread at different rates. – Offsets include both inactive and active segments.