Where does new ocean floor form at an oceanic ridge?

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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. — ocean basin Major features of the ocean basins.

New ocean floor is formed at the crests of oceanic ridges, which serve as spreading centres where tectonic plates move apart from each other.12

As these plates diverge, molten rock material from Earth’s mantle wells up into the gap between them. This magma solidifies to create new oceanic crust, a process known as seafloor spreading. As the process continues, the newly formed crust is pushed laterally away from the ridge flanks, causing the ocean floor to age with distance from the spreading centre.3245