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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 .
Plate tectonics map. The East African Rift (Great Rift Valley) in eastern Africa; The Mid-Atlantic Ridge system separates the North American plate and the South American plate in the west from the African plate and the Eurasian plate in the east; The Gakkel Ridge is a slow spreading ridge located in the Arctic Ocean
The transform fault of the southern fracture zone displaces the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, coming from the Azores triple junction, to the west over a distance of 120 km (75 mi). At longitude 31.75W a south to north seismically active rift valley with a length of 40 km (25 mi) connects the western end of the southern transform to the eastern end of the ...
In the Atlantic Ocean most fracture zones originate from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs from north to south, and are therefore west to east oriented in general. There are about 300 fracture zones, with an average north–south separation of 55 kilometres (34 mi): [ 6 ] two for each degree of latitude.
The Azores triple junction (ATJ) is a geologic triple junction where the boundaries of three tectonic plates intersect: the North American plate, the Eurasian plate and the African plate. This triple junction is located along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) amidst the Azores islands, nearly due west of the Strait of Gibraltar.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge stretches 10,000 miles from north to south, and is considered “the longest mountain range in the world and one of the most prominent geological features on Earth,” NOAA ...
However, the Mid-Atlantic ridge itself is not bordered by plates that are being pulled into subduction zones, except the minor subduction in the Lesser Antilles and Scotia Arc. In this case the plates are sliding apart over the mantle upwelling in the process of ridge push. [4]
It bisects the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) just north of the equator at the narrowest part of the Atlantic between Brazil and West Africa, extending from 2°N to 2°S and from 16°W to 20°W. The trench has been formed by the actions of the Romanche Fracture Zone , a portion of which is an active transform boundary offsetting sections of the Mid ...