Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Scrutinizing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from the perspective of the Continental Drift Theory (CDT), one will understand the nature of the object and the processes that take place within it. If the entire mass of water is drained from the Earth, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as a divergent plate boundary will look like a series of ridges with a deep and long rift across it. The bank is covered in cracks that vary in depth and length, with the surface being somewhat uneven.
Although the width of the ridge is moderately significant, the size thereof is imposing. Transform faults can be located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s sides every 50-100 km (Jerram et al. 118). The rift valley itself is not quite deep, with its lowest point reaching 3 km (Jerram et al. 121). The presence of numerous volcanoes has contributed to deposits containing the sulfides of copper, iron, and zinc.
Pangea, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and the Atlantic Ocean
To understand the connection between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, North America, and Africa, one will need to consider continental drift theory (TCD). Based on the TCD framework, the plate tectonic movement that separated North America from Africa has contributed to developing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the two continents. Due to the continental plates’ divergent tendency, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was formed after the continents were separated by the Atlantic Ocean (Keller and DeVecchio 36).
Therefore, the connection between the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and North America and Africa’s continents is quite evident based on the TCD framework. Moving divergently along with the continental plates, the continents create the void filled with new ocean lithosphere in the seafloor spreading (Keller and DeVecchio 37). Consequently, the ridge is formed, as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s presence between North America and Africa indicates.
Works Cited
Jerram, Dougal, et al. Volcanoes of Europe. Dunedin Academic Press Ltd, 2017.
Keller, Edward A., and Duane E. DeVecchio. Natural Hazards: Earth’s Processes as Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes. 5th ed., Routledge, 2016.