What type of plate boundary forms the East Pacific ridge?
What type of plate boundary forms the East Pacific ridge?
divergent tectonic plate boundary
The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from (north to south) the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate.
When was the East Pacific Rise formed?
About 30 Ma ago, Farallon plate subducted below North America plate, faster than being formed, and two new oceanic plates, Cocos and Nazca, formed from the Cocos-Nazca spreading center.
Is East Pacific Rise a ridge?
The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean ridge that runs through the eastern Pacific Ocean and separates the Pacific plate from the North American plate, the Cocos plate, the Nazca plate, and the Antarctic plate.
What rocks form at the East Pacific Rise?
Abstract. The apical parts of large volcanoes along the East Pacific Rise (islands and seamounts) are encrusted with rocks of the alkali volcanic suite (alkali basalt, andesine- and oligoclase-andesite, and trachyte).
Which zone is formed in the divergent plate boundary?
At divergent boundaries, sometimes called constructive boundaries, lithospheric plates move away from each other. There are two types of divergent boundaries, categorized by where they occur: continental rift zones and mid-ocean ridges.
Which type of boundaries movement causing the formation of oceanic ridges?
When two plates are moving away from each other, we call this a divergent plate boundary. Along these boundaries, magma rises from deep within the Earth and erupts to form new crust on the lithosphere. Most divergent plate boundaries are underwater and form submarine mountain ranges called oceanic spreading ridges.
Where is the East Pacific ridge?
southeastern Pacific Ocean
East Pacific Rise, linear submarine volcanic chain on the floor of the southeastern Pacific Ocean, roughly paralleling the west coast of South America.
Who Discovered East Pacific Rise?
The East Pacific Rise was first detected during the Challenger Expedition of the 1870s. It was described in its gross form during the 1950s and ’60s by oceanographers, including Heezen, Ewing, and Henry W. Menard.
Where is East Pacific ridge?
Why is the East Pacific Rise so fast?
At a fast-spreading mid-ocean ridge the magma supply rate is higher. This keeps the plates warmer and the crest of the rise does not subside. Cross-section of East Pacific Rise at 3 degrees S from Macdonald (1982). Vertical exaggeration = 4x.
What features occur at the East Pacific Rise?
The East Pacific Rise forms part of the circumglobal system of active volcanic ridges, all of which define the position of diverging plates where new crust is being created. Such ridges represent the locus of global shallow-water earthquakes.
Is the East Pacific Rise a subduction zone?
The islands are a manifestation of intersecting plate boundaries—the spreading center of the East Pacific Rise, which traces south from the Gulf of California, and the subduction zone that consumes the Cocos plate beneath southern Mexico.
Why the ridge is formed along divergent boundary?
Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries, where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart. As the plates separate, molten rock rises to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt.
What landforms are created by divergent boundaries?
At DIVERGENT boundaries the plates move apart allowing molten magma to rise and form new crust in the form of ridges, valleys and volcanoes. Landforms created by divergent plates include the Mid Atlantic Ridge and the Great African Rift Valley.
What is formed at a ocean ocean divergent boundary?
Divergent plate boundaries in the ocean create mid-ocean ridges. This is where new seafloor is created by upwelling magma. Divergent plate boundaries rift a continent apart. Eventually a new ocean will form between the two continents.
At which type of boundary is new oceanic crust created?
divergent boundary
A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Along these boundaries, earthquakes are common and magma (molten rock) rises from the Earth’s mantle to the surface, solidifying to create new oceanic crust.
How was the Explorer Ridge formed?
Geology. This divergent boundary first formed about 5-7 million years ago when the northern end of the Juan de Fuca Plate broke off along the Nootka Fault to form the Explorer Plate.
Which type of divergent boundary would result in the formation of an oceanic ridge?
Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and exist as mid-oceanic ridges. Divergent boundaries also form volcanic islands, which occur when the plates move apart to produce gaps that magma rises to fill.
What landforms are formed by Convergent boundaries?
Typically, a convergent plate boundary—such as the one between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate—forms towering mountain ranges, like the Himalaya, as Earth’s crust is crumpled and pushed upward. In some cases, however, a convergent plate boundary can result in one tectonic plate diving underneath another.
What plate boundary is the East Pacific Rise?
The East Pacific Rise and its associated features to the north and southwest form the eastern and southern boundaries of the Pacific Plate, where it abuts (from north to south) the North American, Cocos, Nazca, and Antarctic plates.
What is the East Pacific Rise known for?
East Pacific Rise. The East Pacific Rise forms part of the circumglobal system of active volcanic ridges, all of which define the position of diverging plates where new crust is being created. Such ridges represent the locus of global shallow-water earthquakes.
What is the geology of the Pacific Ocean?
Geology of the Pacific Ocean. The first ocean floor which is part of the current Pacific Plate began 160 Ma to the west of the central Pacific and subsequently developed into the largest oceanic plate on Earth. The tectonic plates continue to move today. The slowest spreading ridge is the Gakkel Ridge on the Arctic Ocean floor,…
What two tectonic plates does the Mid-Atlantic Ridge separate?
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, for instance, separates the North American plate from the Eurasian plate, and the South American plate from the African plate.