海洋科学: 研究開発

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Brief Note on Ocean Mid Ridges

Umarani Kanakapati

The massive mid-ocean ridge system is a continuous extent of underwater volcanoes that wraps around the globe like seams on a baseball, stretching almost 75,000km. Most of the system is submarine, with an average water depth to the top of the ridge of 2,000m. Mid- Ocean ridges takes place along divergent plate boundaries, where new sea floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates extend apart. As the plates separate, molten rock rises to the ocean floor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt. The speed of spreading affects the shape of a ridges moderately spreading rates result in steep, asymmetrical topography while faster spreading rates process much wider profiles and more gentle slopes. Two well-studied mid-ocean ridges within the universal system are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise.