What is a Mid-Ocean Ridge?

Expedition Menu

1. Introduction

2. Our Voyage

3. Preparing to Depart

4. Mapping from Space

5. Painting a Picture

6. Water Depth

7. Traveltime

8. Sound in Water

9. Water Depth

10. Multibeam

11. Atlantic Seafloor

12. Pacific Seafloor

13. Review Results

14. California Margin I

15. California Margin II

Tour of the Mid-Ocean Ridge System around the Globe

Also known as an Oceanic Ridge or Spreading Center, here is the mid-ocean ridge beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

A continuous belt of active undersea volcanoes, extending through the major ocean basins, which forms the most continuous mountain range on earth.

Movie modified by permission of David Sandwell

Image Produced by Ocean Mapping Development Center
University of Rhode Island

The average water depth at the crest of the ridge is approximately 2500 meters.

The long ridge (in red) in the image above is the East Pacific Rise, the mid-ocean ridge in the Pacific basin. Scattered around the ridge are numerous volcanic seamounts.

Galapagos Ridge
Courtesy of University of New Brunswick
Ocean Mapping Group

A different color scheme is used here to illustrate the changes in water depth.

You should also be able to recognize the abyssal hills, seamounts and the edges of the abyssal plain in the image.

Created By:

Don Reed
Dept. of Geology
San Jose State University

©Copyright 2008
Last Updated on 
Sept. 15, 2008

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