Divergent Plate Boundary Mid Ocean Ridge

This feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary.

Divergent plate boundary mid ocean ridge. Here convection in the mantle and asthenosphere pictured below brings fresh hot basaltic magma toward the surface. A number of features and examples of. In this lesson you will learn the meaning of the term divergent boundary in the context of plate tectonics. The southern tip of africa is but one segment of the global mid ocean ridge system that encircles the earth.

It typically has a depth of 2 600 meters and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin. The ridge extends from a junction with the. This is where long chains of underwater volcanoes spew out lava. And it turns out these mid oceanic ridges rift valleys has the youngest geologic rocks on the planet.

Spreading center volcanism occurs at rift zones where two plates are moving apart from each other. Most commonly this is the case at mid oceanic ridges where two oceanic plates move apart. Perhaps the best known of the divergent boundaries is the mid atlantic ridge. A mid ocean ridge is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics.

The mid atlantic ridge mar is a mid ocean ridge a divergent or constructive plate boundary located along the floor of the atlantic ocean and part of the longest mountain range in the world in the north atlantic it separates the eurasian and north american plates and in the south atlantic it separates the african and south american plates. The production of new seafloor and oceanic lithosphere results from mantle upwelling in respo. Divergent plate boundary oceanic when a divergent boundary occurs beneath oceanic lithosphere the rising convection current below lifts the lithosphere producing a mid ocean ridge. Divergent plate boundaries also called mid ocean ridges oceanic spreading centers or continental rifts occur where the earth s tectonic plates move away from each other.

Most divergent plates are at oceanic plate boundaries. The rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its width in an ocean basin. The rate of spreading along the mid atlantic ridge averages about 2 5 centimeters per year cm yr or 25 km in a million. Slowly spreading ridges are the sites of tall narrow underwater cliff s and mountains.

New oceanic crust is created at this boundary when basalt magma formed in the mantle rises into fractures in the crust and solidifies. Rapidly spreading ridges have a much more gentle slopes. Extensional forces stretch the lithosphere and produce a deep fissure. The southeast indian ridge marks where the southern indo australian plate forms a divergent boundary with the antarctic plate.

When the fissure opens pressure is reduced on the super heated mantle material below. Seafloor spreading is not consistent at all mid ocean ridges.