Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Also known as Atlantic-Indian-Ridge, MAR

Atlantic Ocean tectonic plate boundary

AI overview

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an underwater mountain range on the ocean floor that marks the boundary where two of Earth's major tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart. As these plates separate, hot rock from deep within the Earth rises up and cools to form new oceanic crust, which is why the ridge matters for understanding how Earth's surface is constantly being reshaped.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A bathymetric map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (shown in light blue in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean)

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North American from the Eurasian plate and the African plate, north and south of the Azores triple junction. In the South Atlantic, it separates the African and South American plates. The ridge extends from a junction with the Gakkel Ridge (Mid-Arctic Ridge) northeast of Greenland southward to the Bouvet triple junction in the South Atlantic. Although the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is mostly an underwater feature, portions of it have enough elevation to extend above sea level, for example in Iceland. The ridge has an average spreading rate of about 2.5 centimetres (1 in) per year.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mid-Atlantic Ridge” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.