Juan de Fuca Ridge

The Juan de Fuca Ridge is an oceanic ridge located in the Pacific Ocean. Oceanic ridges are extensive underwater mountain chains that form the largest features in ocean basins and collectively make up the Earth's most prominent surface feature after continents and ocean basins. These ridges are characterized by seafloor spreading centers where new oceanic crust is formed.1

The Juan de Fuca Plate, east of this spreading center, is subducting under the North American Plate. This process generates molten mantle rock, which is responsible for the volcanoes in the Cascade Range. Earthquakes are common along oceanic ridges and associated transform faults, indicating that the oceanic crust is under tension. The depths over oceanic ridges correlate with the age of the ocean crust, with depth increasing as the crust ages due to thermal contraction.21