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Mid-Atlantic Ridge Research Paper

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magnetic stripes along the seafloor, with stripes getting older as you move away from the mid-Atlantic ridge, thus proving that the plates are moving apart. REVISION GUIDE

The mid-Atlantic ridge:

The mid-Atlantic ridge runs like a spine along the ocean floor between the North and South Atlantic Ocean. It is a constructive plate boundary where crust is created and not destroyed. In the north Atlantic it separates the North American plate from the Eurasian plate and in the south-Atlantic it separates the African and south-American plates. It breaches the surface of the water at several different points along the length, both in the northern and southern hemisphere, but most notably where you find Iceland, the largest land mass to breach the surface at 102,775km2, with the highest point recorded at the top of the Oraefajokull volcano at 2109.6m. This however is not the highest point of the mid-Atlantic ridge, which is found on the Island of Pico, Portugal, at 2351m high, the lowest being Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, at 22.5m. (ALL WIKI) …show more content…

An example of this can be seen on the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the south-west coast of Iceland, which continues to create islands. The most recent of these being the creation of Surtsey, the eruption of which lasted four years, beginning in 1963 and finishing in 1967. The most notable island on this chain is that of Heimaey, which saw its last eruption of the volcano Eldfell in 1973. This island has a population of 4500 people and an area of 13.4km2. Eruptions like this and the creation of islands on the archipelago show that the country is still growing, and show the high tectonic activity of the

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