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The oceanic ridge system (ridge) is Earth's largest mountain range and covers roughly 20% of Earth's surface (Figure 1.7). The ridge is >65 000 km long, averages ~1500 km in width and rises to a crest with an average elevation of ~3 km above the surrounding sea floor. A moment's thought will show that the ridge system is only a broad swell on the ocean floor, whose slopes, on average, are very gentle. Since it rises only 3 km over a horizontal distance of 750 km, the average slope is 3 km/750 km which is about 0.004; the average slope is less than half a degree. We often exaggerate the vertical dimension on profiles and maps in order to make the subtle stand out. Still there are differences in relief along the ridge system. In general, warmer, faster spreading portions of the ridge such as the East Pacific Rise (~6–18 cm/yr) have gentler slopes than colder, slower spreading portions such as the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge (~2–4 cm/yr). The central or axial portion of the ridge system is commonly marked by a rift valley, especially along slower spreading segments. This marks the position of a divergent plate boundary in oceanic lithosphere (Figure 1.7).

Figure 1.7 Map of the ocean floor showing the distribution of the oceanic ridge system.

Source: World Ocean Floor Manuscript Map; drawn by Berann, H.C., US Library of Congress, public domain after Heezan, Bruce C. and Tharpe, Marie.

One of the most significant discoveries of the twentieth century (Dietz 1961; Hess 1962) was that oceanic crust forms along the axis of the ridge system, then spreads away from it in both directions, causing ocean basins to grow through time. The details of this process are illustrated by Figure 1.8. As the lithosphere is thinned, the asthenosphere rises toward the surface, generating basaltic‐gabbroic melts. Melts that crystallize in magma bodies well below the surface form basic plutonic rocks such as gabbro that become layer 3 in oceanic crust. Melts intruded into near vertical fractures above the chamber form the gabbroic‐basaltic parallel “sheeted” dikes that become layer 2b. Lavas that flow onto the ocean floor commonly form basaltic pillow and sheet lavas that become layer 2a. The marine sediments of layer 1 are deposited atop the basalts as they spread away from the ridge axis. In this way layers 1, 2, and 3 of the oceanic crust are formed. The underlying mantle consists of ultramafic rocks (layer 4). Layered ultramafic rocks form by differentiation near the base of the basaltic‐gabbroic magma bodies, whereas the remainder of layer 4 represents the unmelted, refractory residue that accumulates below the magma bodies.

Figure 1.8 The formation of oceanic crust along the ridge axis generates layer 2 pillow basalts and dikes and layer three gabbros of the oceanic crust (blue) and layer 4 mantle peridotites (gray). Sediment deposition atop these rocks produces layer 1 (yellow) of the crust. Sea floor spreading (black arrows) carries these laterally away from the ridge axis in both directions.

Because the ridge axis marks a divergent plate boundary, the new sea floor on one side moves away from the ridge axis in one direction and the new sea floor on the other side moves in the opposite direction relative to the ridge axis. More melts rise from the asthenosphere and the process is repeated, sometimes over >100 Ma. In this way ocean basins grow by sea floor spreading as though new sea floor was being added to two slowly moving conveyor belts that carry older sea floor in opposite directions away from the ridge where it forms (Figure 1.8). Because most oceanic lithosphere is produced along divergent plate boundaries marked by the ridge system, these boundaries are also called constructive plate boundaries.

As sea floor spreads away from the ridge axis, the crust thickens from above by the accumulation of marine sediments and the lithosphere thickens from below by a process called underplating that occurs as the solid, unmelted portion of the asthenosphere spreads laterally and cools through a critical temperature below which it becomes strong enough to fracture. As the entire lithosphere cools, it contracts, becomes denser, and sinks, so that the floors of the ocean gradually deepen away from the thermally elevated ridge axis. As explained in the next section, if the density of oceanic lithosphere exceeds that of the underlying asthenosphere, subduction occurs.

The formation of oceanic lithosphere by sea floor spreading implies that the age of oceanic crust should increase systematically away from the ridge in opposite directions. Crust produced during a period of time characterized by normal magnetic polarity should split in two and spread away from the ridge axis. New crust formed during the subsequent period of reversed magnetic polarity will form between the two areas of normally polarized crust and the reversely magnetized crust will also split in two. As indicated by Figure 1.9, repetition of this splitting process produces oceanic crust with bands (linear magnetic anomalies) of alternating normal and reversed magnetism whose age increases systematically away from the ridge, as initially explained by Vine and Matthews (1963).

Figure 1.9 Model depicts the production of alternating normal (colored) and reversed (white) magnetic bands in oceanic crust by progressive sea floor spreading and alternating normal and reversed periods of geomagnetic polarity (a–c). The age of such bands should increase away from the ridge axis.

Source: Courtesy of USGS.

Sea floor spreading was convincingly demonstrated in the middle to late 1960s by paleomagnetic studies and radiometric dating which showed that the age of ocean floors systematically increases in both directions away from the ridge axis, as predicted by sea floor spreading (Figure 1.10).

Hess (1962), and those who followed, realized that sea floor spreading causes the outer layer of Earth to grow substantially over time. If Earth's circumference is relatively constant and Earth's lithosphere is growing and being extended horizontally at divergent plate boundaries over long periods of time, then there must be places where it is undergoing long‐term horizontal shortening of similar magnitude. As ocean lithosphere ages and continues to move away from oceanic spreading centers, it cools, subsides, and becomes denser over time. The increased density eventually causes the strong ocean lithosphere to become denser than the underlying, weak asthenosphere. As a result, a plate carrying old, cold, dense ocean lithosphere begins to sink downward into the asthenosphere under a more buoyant plate edge, creating a convergent plate boundary.

Figure 1.10 World map showing the age of oceanic crust; such maps confirmed the origin of oceanic crust by sea floor spreading.

Source: From Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.