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Oceanic ridges are found in every ocean basin and appear to girdle Earth. The ridges rise from depths near 5 km (3 miles) to an essentially uniform depth of about 2.6 km (1.6 miles) and are roughly symmetrical in cross section. They can be thousands of kilometres wide.
Definition. An oceanic ridge is a continuous mountain range that forms along the seafloor at divergent plate boundaries, where tectonic plates are moving apart and new oceanic crust is created.
What is the oceanic ridge? It is a type of submarine relief that is common to find on the seabed around the planet, mainly in the central part of the planet. Oceanic ridges are a direct product of volcanic activity and the movement of tectonic plates.
The oceanic ridge system is the largest feature of the Earth’s surface after the continents and the ocean basins themselves; it is explained by the theory of plate tectonics as a boundary between diverging plates where molten rock is brought up from deep beneath the Earth’s crust.
Oceanic ridges are the topographic expression of linear or curvilinear zones along which the Earth's oceanic crust is created or modified. A glance at any detailed bathymetric chart reveals that many different geomorphic features within the oceans are called ridges.
Oceanic ridge formation is a key example of seafloor spreading, which occurs when tectonic plates diverge. As these plates pull apart, magma rises from the mantle to fill the gap, creating new oceanic crust at the mid-ocean ridge.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which stretches for thousands of miles in the Atlantic Ocean, is the longest mountain chain on Earth. Understanding the geologic processes at the ridge, mapped here using satellite data, was crucial as scientists developed the theory of plate tectonics.
