What are fracture zones in reference to mid-ocean ridges?

Fracture zones are valleys that cut across midocean ridges, thus providing a passage for flow of cold bottom water from one ocean basin to another.

What type of plate boundary is fracture zone?

transform fault, in geology and oceanography, a type of fault in which two tectonic plates slide past one another. A transform fault may occur in the portion of a fracture zone that exists between different offset spreading centres or that connects spreading centres to deep-sea trenches in subduction zones.

What causes the formation of offsets in the mid-ocean ridge system?

– Offsets occur where two plates slide past each other. – Segments of a mid-ocean ridge are initially aligned. Transform faults form when different segments spread at different rates.

Are mid-ocean ridges divergent or convergent?

Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries, where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart.

What are ocean fracture zones?

Fracture zones are defined as structural lineations offsetting accreting plate boundary regions. The evolution of fracture zones is intimately tied to that of oceanic ridge systems with which they form the major morphological and tectonic features of the ocean floor.

Where are fracture zones located?

Fracture zones are common features in the geology of oceanic basins. Globally most fault zones are located on divergent plate boundaries on oceanic crust. This means that they are located around mid-ocean ridges and trend perpendicular to them.

What causes ocean fracture zones?

A fracture zone is a linear oceanic feature—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics.

How are the fracture zones like the eltanin created?

How are fracture zones like the Eltanin created? They are the scars on the seafloor basalt that are created by offsets in the mid-ocean ridge. -Different segments of the mid-ocean ridge system spreading at different rates.

Where is the eltanin fracture zone located?

The Eltanin Fault System (Eltanin Fracture Zone) is a series of six or seven dextral transform faults that offset the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, a spreading zone between the Pacific Plate and the Antarctic Plate.

What are some examples of mid-ocean ridges?

Mid-ocean ridges are typically half a mile to six miles wide and over a mile underwater. Two of the most well-known mid-ocean ridges are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the East Pacific Rise. As you might guess, most of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is in the Atlantic, and most of the East Pacific Rise is in the Pacific.

What are the 3 types of mid-ocean ridges?

Mid-Ocean Ridges: Types of Ridges

• Axial Ridge.
• Magnetics & Polarity.
• Fast/Slow Spreading.

What type of geologic feature caused this offset in the Mid Atlantic Ridge?

transform faults
Due to the fast spreading rates, there is no rift valley, just a smooth volcanic summit with a crack along the crest that is much smaller than the Atlantic rift valley. Every 50-500 km, the mid-ocean ridge is offset sideways right or left by transform faults (found where two plates slide sideways against each other).

What type of plate boundary is a mid-ocean ridge?

Mid-ocean ridges are divergent plate boundaries. As the plates on either side of an offset mid-ocean ridge move, a transform fault forms at the offset between the two ridges. Fracture zones and the transform faults that form them are separate but related features.

What is the relationship between fracture zones and oceanic crusts?

Because of the offset of the midocean ridge spreading centers, the crust on one side of a fracture zone will be older and therefore colder, more contracted, and deeper than the crust on the other side. The boundary between them is often a deep canyon. These are places where deeper levels of the oceanic crust are exposed.

What is the difference between transform faults and fracture zones?

The transform faults are not divergent boundaries. See the sense of relative motion across the transform faults on the map below. The fracture zones are not plate boundaries. The crust on both sides of a fracture zone are part of the same plate and moving in the same direction (see below).

What type of plate boundary is the Mendocino Fracture Zone?

Mendocino Fracture Zone. The Mendocino Fracture Zone extends for over 4,000 km off the coast of California and separates the Pacific Plate and Gorda Plate. The bathymetric depths on the north side of the fracture zone are 800 to 1,200 m shallower than to the south, suggesting the seafloor north of the ridge to be younger.