What caused the Gakkel Ridge?

What caused the Gakkel Ridge?

Until 1999, it was believed to be non-volcanic; that year, scientists operating from a nuclear submarine discovered active volcanoes along it. The largest, the Gakkel Ridge Caldera, is a supervolcano that erupted approximately 1.1 million years ago during the Pleistocene.

How do mid-ocean ridges relate to volcanic activity?

The vast majority of volcanic activity on the planet occurs along the mid-ocean ridge, and it is the place where the crust of the Earth is born. The material that erupts at spreading centers along the mid-ocean ridge is primarily basalt, the most common rock on Earth.

Where is the Gakkel Ridge?

the Arctic Ocean
The Gakkel ridge extends about 1800 kilometers beneath the Arctic Ocean from north of Greenland to Siberia. It is the northernmost portion of the mid-ocean ridge system, the global 75,000 kilometer long volcanic chain where the ocean crust is generated by erupting magma.

What happens to the magma as it exits the mid-ocean ridge?

Mid-Ocean Ridge Volcanism Melts are focused as they ascend through the upper mantle and lower crust and collect beneath the ridge axis in elongate melt lenses. Plate spreading is accommodated by episodic faulting and magma injection into dikes, some of which reach the seafloor and produce basaltic lava flows.

What is the name of the fastest spreading ridge in the world?

The fastest present-day seafloor spreading, ~150 km/Myr, occurs along the Pacific-Nazca boundary between the Easter and Juan Fernandez microplates.

What is the role of the mid-ocean ridge in the movement of the lithospheric plates?

The mid-ocean ridge represents an area where, in accordance with plate tectonic theory, lithospheric plates (also called tectonic plates) move apart and new crust is created by magma (molten rock) pushing up from the mantle .

What are the two tectonic plates at the boundary of Gakkel Ridge?

The Gakkel Ridge (formerly known as the Nansen Cordillera and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge) is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary between the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate.

Why is it that the temperature near the Mid Oceanic Ridge is warmer and the other surfaces?

The flow of the materials goes through the upper mantle and leaks through the plates of the crust. This makes the temperature near the mid-oceanic ridge becomes warm and the other surface to become cold because as the molten magma continues to push upward, it moves the rocks away from the ridge.

Where is new ocean crust being formed?

mid-ocean ridge
The newest, thinnest crust on Earth is located near the center of mid-ocean ridge—the actual site of seafloor spreading. The age, density, and thickness of oceanic crust increases with distance from the mid-ocean ridge.

Why is the East Pacific Rise moving faster than the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?

Faster spreading ridges like the northern and southern East Pacific Rise are “hotter,” meaning more magma is present beneath the ridge axis and more volcanic eruptions occur. Because the plate under the ridge crest is hotter scientists think that the plate responds to the divergent spreading process more fluidly.

Why is Mid-Atlantic Ridge more famous for volcanoes than earthquakes?

Mid-ocean ridges can be geologically noisy places, earthquake-wise, as there is abundant source magma that can migrate from depth into shallow magma chambers below the ridge. However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be leading to an eruption in the near future.

Which type of location produces some of the most explosive volcanoes?

Most explosive eruptions occur in volcanoes above subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives beneath the other.

What happens at mid-ocean ridges?

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 type of plate movement is happening in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?

divergent plate boundaries
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an example of divergent plate boundaries. When two plates come together, it is known as a convergent boundary. The impact of the colliding plates can cause the edges of one or both plates to buckle up into a mountain ranges or one of the plates may bend down into a deep seafloor trench.

What type of plate boundary formed Iceland?

divergent
The tectonic plates whose turbulent interactions formed Iceland, are the Eurasian tectonic plate and the North American tectonic plate. Spanning the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland emerged as a result of the divergent, spreading, boundary between these two plates and the activity of Iceland´s own hotspot or mantle plume.

Why does decompression melting occur at mid-ocean ridges?

2) new crust forms But as these hot mantle rocks rise, the pressure decreases (less mass overhead) to the point where they are able to partially melt. This is called decompression melting. The basaltic magma thus formed, slowly migrates toward the surface and intrudes into fractures forming at the midocean ridge.