What is the slowest spreading ocean?
The Gakkel Mid-Ocean Ridge (MOR) is the slowest spreading center on the planet with full-spreading rates between 1.33 cm/yr along the Greenland end to 0.63 cm/yr along the Siberian end.
What is the difference between a fast spread and a slow spread?
Steep steps in the seafloor that can be as tall as a few tens of meters (at fast spreading ridges) to hundreds of meters (at slow spreading ridges). These features are also called abyssal hills and are present on both sides of the ridge axis and are caused cracking of the ocean plate by seafloor spreading.
How are the valleys of the slow spreading rifts and fast spreading rifts are similar and different?
Fast-spreading mid-ocean ridges have an axial high (the “rise crest”) whereas slow-spreading ridges have deep axial rift valleys. This difference in morphology is reflected in the ruggedness of the flanks of ridges.
How old is the oldest ocean rock in the ocean floor on Earth?
about 260 million years
Which has a faster seafloor spreading rate the Atlantic or Pacific?
Seafloor-spreading rates are much more rapid in the Pacific Ocean than in the Atlantic and Indian oceans. At spreading rates of about 15 cm (6 inches) per year, the entire crust beneath the Pacific Ocean (about 15,000 km [9,300 miles] wide) could be produced in 100 million years.
Which ocean is growing the fastest?
The southern stretch of the East Pacific Rise is one of the fastest-spreading sections of the Earth’s mid-ocean ridge system.
What parts of the ridge have slower spreading rates where does spreading occur faster?
The speed of spreading affects the shape of a ridge – slower spreading rates result in steep, irregular topography while faster spreading rates produce much wider profiles and more gentle slopes. Two well-studied mid-ocean ridges within the global system are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise.
Which Ridge is spreading faster?
Faster spreading ridges like the northern and southern East Pacific Rise are “hotter,” meaning more magma is present beneath the ridge axis and more volcanic eruptions occur. Because the plate under the ridge crest is hotter scientists think that the plate responds to the divergent spreading process more fluidly.
What is the rate of spreading at the Mid Atlantic Ridge is this considered fast or slow?
The rate of spreading along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge averages about 2.5 centimeters per year (cm/yr), or 25 km in a million years. This rate may seem slow by human standards, but because this process has been going on for millions of years, it has resulted in plate movement of thousands of kilometers.
What is the spreading rate cm Year of the fastest Mid Oceanic Ridge?
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.