Concepts



Quick concepts:

Related to mid-ocean ridges

  1. The mid-ocean ridges are the large undersea mountain chains that encircle the Earth
  2. Not all mid-ocean ridges are located in the middles of oceans
  3. Mid ocean ridges are volcanic structures. They are linear volcanic zones than single-cone-shaped structures.
  4. The hightest places in the ocean are the tops of mid ocean ridges
  5. Divergence takes place at mid-ocean ridges and it is called seafloor spreading.
  6. Mid-ocean ridges are formed by volcanic activity with current activity concentrated along the top of the ridge.
  7. The deepest parts of the oceans are not in its centers. Instead, the sea floor is deeper as you get further away from midocean ridges to either side. T^he deepest parts of the seafllor occur in thin linear strips close to the offshore edges of continents.
  8. A midocean ridge is a specific structure - an undersea mountain range where seafloor spreading takes place.
  9. The East Pacific Rise and Mid-Atlantic Ridge are the names give to two examples of midocean ridges.
  10. The shape of a ridge is ..., not a cliff, like some ridges in everyday ...
  11. Divergence also occurs on continents, although much less common.
  12. Divergence at midocean ridges is part os a lifecycle of ocean formation from opening to closing.
  13. After oceans close, new oceans form on continenents, forming new places where the Earth can release heat from the interior by convection.
  14. Continents that undergo divergence, like the modern day East African Rift, either develop into oceans or abandon the activity.
  15. Although both the Atlantic and the Pacific have active midocean ridges that produce new oceanic crust, the Atlantic is growing while the Pacific is closing.

Odds and ends

  1. A ridge in everyday language can be a cliff-like structure. A midocean ridge is a mountain range shaped structure and pertains specifically to the largest of the Earth's mountain ranges that occurs on oceanic crust where seafloor spreading occurs.
  2. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise are two midocean ridges. The specific names are give to those structures.
  3. Divergence: may cease along segments of midocean ridge and leave behind some inactive ridges or ridge segments.
    Divergence: is sometimes observed on continents.
    Divergence: starts when continents begin to break up, develop intervening oceanic crust or .
  4. Amidocean ridge is a kind of ridge, but it is specifically the volcanic mountain range where seafloor spreading takes place.
    Divergence: Is one of the three motion-based relationships that adjacent plates can have, the other two being convergence and transform.
    Divergence: Is observed to occur mainly in the ocean. Not because it is limited to the oceans, but because divergence forms oceanic crust and thus the places we call oceans, i.e. the low spots on the Earth.
    Seafloor spreading: is what we call divergence that occurs in the ocean at midocean ridges.
    Midocean ridges: are all divergent plate boundaries because crust on opposite sides moves in different directions, being on separate plates.
    Midocean ridges: in the modern ocean are mostly active, rather than abandoned remnants of previous activity because .
  5. Types of maps that show the Earth's vertical height:
    Relief map

    Topographic map

    Bathymetric chart

  6. The height (elevation) of land and depth (bathymetry) of the sea is given relative to nean sea level. Since sea level isn't "flat" or perfectly spherical, even if it were possible to make it still, locating mean sea level in detail is a more difficult task than it might seem.
    http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0703/geoid1of3.html

Quick facts:

How do we know it?

  1. Divergence takes place at midocean ridges.
    2. We can observe ground on either side to be moving away from the ridge in opposite directions.
    It is consistent with the pattern of the age of the seafloor, getting older away from a midocean ridges

Practical matters:

Why is it important to know?

  1. The shape of the entire seafloor is dependent on midocean ridges because the seafloor (oceanic crust) was formed at midocean ridges.
    1. The largest significant shapes on the surface of our planet are produced in the ocean at midocean ridges.
    2. • • The largest significant shapes on the surface of our planet are produced in the ocean at midocean ridges.
    3. Contrary to what may seem intuitive, the highest part of most of the ocean is not towards the center, but at midocean ridges.
    4. • Contrary to what may seem intuitive, the deepest part of the oceans are in very narrow strips that parallel continenents or archipelagos very close to land.