Rift Valley On Ocean Floor

The mid atlantic ridge includes a deep rift valley that runs along the axis of the ridge along nearly its entire length.

Rift valley on ocean floor. The center of these mid ocean ridges are rift valleys that separate lie between the two separating plates. 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. 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 can be found in areas that have faults in the earth s crust where separation of land masses has occurred.

Famous rift valleys and facts east rift valley taiwan. Rift valleys usually form where the earth s lithosphere has become thin through extension associated with plate tectonic processes. Examples of this type of rift include the mid atlantic ridge and the east pacific rise. Rift valleys also occur on the ocean floor at mid ocean ridges where the seafloor separates between tectonic plates.

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. 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. Rift valley a long narrow valley lying between two normal geologic faults. 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.

The great rift valley and red sea a major site of seafloor spreading are the result of plate tectonics in the afar triple junction. Rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading. On the continents rift valleys form in divergence zones of tectonic plates.