Define A Ocean Floor Rift

Rift valleys usually form where the earth s lithosphere has become thin through extension associated with plate tectonic processes.

Define a ocean floor rift.

Oliver and bryan l. When she inked in and cross hatched the spaces the topographical profile of the north atlantic was evident with mountains and plains and a very obvious mid ocean rift valley indicating continental drift a horrifying concept for geologists to grasp in 1952. Mid ocean ridge definition is an elevated region with a central valley on an ocean floor at the boundary between two diverging tectonic plates where new crust forms from upwelling magma. A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where earth s tectonic plates move apart or rift rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading rift valleys differ from river valleys and glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion.

Collectively the oceanic ridge system is the most prominent feature on earth s surface after the. Hess theory was that new seafloor is formed when magma is forced upward toward the surface at a mid ocean ridge. If spreading continues past the incipient stage described above two of the rift arms will open while the third arm stops opening and becomes a failed rift or aulacogen. Individually ocean ridges are the largest features in ocean basins.

The ocean floor is thus pushed at right angles and in opposite directions away from the crests. As the two active rifts continue to open eventually the. Ocean definition the vast body of salt water that covers almost three fourths of the earth s surface. Isacks had integrated this notion of seafloor spreading with that of drifting continents and formulated the basis of plate tectonic theory.

Running over 10 000 miles through the atlantic ocean the mid atlantic ridge is the longest mountain range on the planet. Stress orientation of its huge neighbor and has adopted the same rift zone orientation from fiske jackson 1972. The most popular mechanism for this outward movement is sliding along the volcano ocean floor interface which consists of easily deformable sediments e g. Rift valley definition graben.

Oceanic ridge continuous submarine mountain chain extending approximately 80 000 km 50 000 miles through all the world s oceans.