GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -These plates are still moving apart, so the Atlantic is growing at the ridge, at a rate of about 2.5 cm per year in an east-west direction. Most of the ridge system is under water but forms land as a set of volcanic islands of varying size that run the length of the Atlantic Ocean.

Detailed explanation-2: -The tectonic plates under the Americas, Europe, and Africa are being pushed apart as the Atlantic Ocean widens year by year. New research reveals what’s pushing the plates apart: Material from deep within the Earth is bursting upward at an undersea ridge in the middle of the Atlantic.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world.

Detailed explanation-4: -Perhaps the best known of the divergent boundaries is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This submerged mountain range, which extends from the Arctic Ocean to beyond the southern tip of Africa, is but one segment of the global mid-ocean ridge system that encircles the Earth.

Detailed explanation-5: -The entire sea floor was mapped in the 1950s where most the topographic features surrounding the Mid-Atlantic Ridge were discovered. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a feature created at a divergent plate boundary, where two plates are spreading apart.