oceanic ridge: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	mid-oceanic ridge • mid-oceanic ridge system

Photos and Videos

World map highlighting major features of the ocean basins, including trenches, ridges, basins, and plateaus labeled throughout the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic Oceans. Continents are shown with shaded terrain, and prominent undersea features such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Mariana Trench, and Kerguelen Plateau are marked across the map.

transform faults

Cross-sectional diagram illustrating plate tectonics, showing oceanic and continental crust moving over the asthenosphere. It highlights divergent boundaries at oceanic ridges where crust forms, convergent boundaries at trenches with subduction zones where crust is destroyed, and a transform boundary with a fault. Features such as island arcs, rising magma, and hotspots are labeled.

Atlantic Ocean, with depth contours and submarine features

Map of the Pacific Ocean showing depth contours in varying shades of blue, major submarine features such as trenches, ridges, and basins labeled throughout the ocean, and neighboring landmasses including Asia, Australia, North and South America. Principal cities along the Pacific rim and island groups are marked, along with international boundaries.

Cross-sectional diagram showing three tectonic plates at ocean ridges, transform faults, and a subduction zone. The image illustrates rising magma forming rift and subduction volcanoes, convection currents in the mantle, and features such as ocean trenches, extinct and hot-spot volcanoes, and the movement of plates above a molten core and low-velocity mantle layer.

Hear researcher Andy Wheeler speaking about an expedition to discover new hydrothermal vent field in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean

How and where does magma form on Earth?

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Topics

accretionary prism mid-ocean-ridge basalt ridge-ridge transform fault submarine fracture zone Harbors and sea works iceberg ocean current coral reef gulf deep-sea trench submarine canyon bay abyssal plain abyssal hill

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