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Divergent Boundaries: Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Divergent boundaries occur where tectonic plates are moving apart and new oceanic crust is created by magma rising from the mantle. The best known example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which extends along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and is spreading at a rate of around 2.5 cm per year, helping to widen the Atlantic. Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and provides a location to directly observe the processes of seafloor spreading on land, with new cracks appearing frequently at volcanoes like Krafla. Similarly, the East African Rift Zone is an area where the African plate is splitting apart, with new volcanoes occasionally erupting.

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39 views

Divergent Boundaries: Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Divergent boundaries occur where tectonic plates are moving apart and new oceanic crust is created by magma rising from the mantle. The best known example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which extends along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean and is spreading at a rate of around 2.5 cm per year, helping to widen the Atlantic. Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and provides a location to directly observe the processes of seafloor spreading on land, with new cracks appearing frequently at volcanoes like Krafla. Similarly, the East African Rift Zone is an area where the African plate is splitting apart, with new volcanoes occasionally erupting.

Uploaded by

Dekweriz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Divergent boundaries

Divergent boundaries occur along spreading centers where plates are moving apart and new crust
is created by magma pushing up from the mantle. Picture two giant conveyor belts, facing each
other but slowly moving in opposite directions as they transport newly formed oceanic crust
away from the ridge crest.

Perhaps the best known of the divergent boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This submerged
mountain range, which extends from the Arctic Ocean to beyond the southern tip of Africa, is but
one segment of the global mid-ocean ridge system that encircles the Earth. 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.
Seafloor spreading over the past 100 to 200 million years has caused the Atlantic Ocean to grow
from a tiny inlet of water between the continents of Europe, Africa, and the Americas into the
vast ocean that exists today.

Mid-Atlantic Ridge [26 k]

The volcanic country of Iceland, which straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, offers scientists a
natural laboratory for studying on land the processes also occurring along the submerged parts of
a spreading ridge. Iceland is splitting along the spreading center between the North American
and Eurasian Plates, as North America moves westward relative to Eurasia.
Map showing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge splitting Iceland and separating the North American and
Eurasian Plates. The map also shows Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, the Thingvellir area, and
the locations of some of Iceland's active volcanoes (red triangles), including Krafla.

The consequences of plate movement are easy to see around Krafla Volcano, in the northeastern
part of Iceland. Here, existing ground cracks have widened and new ones appear every few
months. From 1975 to 1984, numerous episodes of rifting (surface cracking) took place along the
Krafla fissure zone. Some of these rifting events were accompanied by volcanic activity; the
ground would gradually rise 1-2 m before abruptly dropping, signalling an impending eruption.
Between 1975 and 1984, the displacements caused by rifting totalled about 7 m.

Lava Fountains, Krafla Volcano [35 k]

Thingvellir Fissure Zone, Iceland [80 k]

In East Africa, spreading processes have already torn Saudi Arabia away from the rest of the
African continent, forming the Red Sea. The actively splitting African Plate and the Arabian
Plate meet in what geologists call a triple junction, where the Red Sea meets the Gulf of Aden. A
new spreading center may be developing under Africa along the East African Rift Zone. When
the continental crust stretches beyond its limits, tension cracks begin to appear on the Earth's
surface. Magma rises and squeezes through the widening cracks, sometimes to erupt and form
volcanoes. The rising magma, whether or not it erupts, puts more pressure on the crust to
produce additional fractures and, ultimately, the rift zone.

Historically Active Volcanoes, East Africa [38 k]

East Africa may be the site of the Earth's next major ocean. Plate interactions in the region
provide scientists an opportunity to study first hand how the Atlantic may have begun to form
about 200 million years ago. Geologists believe that, if spreading continues, the three plates that
meet at the edge of the present-day African continent will separate completely, allowing the
Indian Ocean to flood the area and making the easternmost corner of Africa (the Horn of Africa)
a large island.

Summit Crater of 'Erta 'Ale [55 k]

Oldoinyo Lengai, East African Rift Zone [38 k]

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