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2014 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Oceanic Spreading Ridges and Sea Floor Creation

Author : Roger Hekinian

Published in: Sea Floor Exploration

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

The Spreading Ridge System is one of the most striking features exposed on the seafloor. It is a belt of volcanoes that surrounds the planet both under the oceans and in subaerial terrain. The Spreading Ridge System is where plate divergence occurs when ascending hot material rising from the mantle creates the sea floor. The spreading ridges extend around the World for a total length of 70,000 km and a width of about 1,000–2,000 km. This system is cut by tectonic and magmatic discontinuities such as fracture zones and disrupted spreading ridge segments. When compared to a human body, the spreading ridge system is like a continuous “backbone” and the “rib-bones” are the fracture zones emanating from both sides of the ridge axis.

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previous chapter Hydrothermal Activity and Metalliferous Deposits

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Title: Oceanic Spreading Ridges and Sea Floor Creation
Author: Roger Hekinian
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Sea Floor Exploration
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03202-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-03203-0

Copyright Year: 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03203-0_7