Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 21:51, 24 January 2005

Revision as of 17:42, 1 February 2005

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The '''Mid-Atlantic Ridge''' is an [[water|underwater]] [[mountain range]] of the [[Atlantic Ocean]] that runs from [[Iceland]] to [[Antarctica]], and is the longest [[mountain range]] on [[Earth]]. The ridge was discovered by [[Bruce C. Heezen|Bruce Heezen]] in the [[1950s1958]]. The discovery of this ridge led to the [[theory]] of [[seafloor spreading]] and general acceptance of [[Alfred Wegener|Wegener's]] theory of [[continental drift]]. According to [[plate tectonics]], this ridge runs along a [[divergent boundary]].

This ridge is an oceanic rift that separates the [[North American Plate]] from the [[Eurasian Plate]] in the [[North Atlantic]], and the [[South American Plate]] from the [[African Plate]] in the [[South Atlantic]]. The ridge actually sits on top of the '''mid-Atlantic rise''' which is a progressive bulge that also runs the length of the Atlantic Ocean with the ridge resting on the highest point of this linear bulge. This bulge is thought to be caused by upward convective forces in the [[asthenosphere]] pushing the [[oceanic crust]] and [[lithosphere]].