Rift Valley In Ocean Floor
The center of these mid ocean ridges are rift valleys that separate lie between the two separating plates.
Rift valley in ocean floor. A long narrow valley lying between two normal geologic faults. Examples of this type of rift include the mid atlantic ridge and the east pacific rise. Rift valleys differ from river valley s and glacial valley s in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion. Earlier researchers particularly alfred wegener noticed how well the coastlines of africa and south america fit together and proposed the continents had once been connected.
On the continents rift valleys form in divergence zones of tectonic plates. Rift valleys usually form where the earth s lithosphere has become thin through extension associated with plate tectonic processes. As the plates move apart magma from the upper mantle flows out onto the ocean floor in the valleys creating the newest crust on the planet. A rift valley s walls may stand at heights of hundred feets and they drop away in the form of terraces and steps.
Rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading. The global mid ocean ridges are found in all the oceans on earth. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. Earth s rift valleys the most extensive rift valley is located along the crest of the mid ocean ridge system and is the result of sea floor spreading.
Rift valleys are found both on the continents and on the floor of ocean basins. In terms of the theory of plate tectonics they occur in divergence zones belts where two of the various lithospheric plates that make up the earth s surface are separating. This rift marks the actual boundary between adjacent tectonic plates where magma from the mantle reaches the seafloor erupting as lava and producing new crustal material for the plates. Rift valleys occur on the continents as well as on the ocean floor where they arise from seafloor separation.