Mid-ocean ridge

High school (ages 12+)
Geography

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Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/mid-ocean-ridge

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How long is the Mid-ocean ridge?Approximately 65,000 km (40,000 miles), encircling the globe
2. What is the geological setting?Divergent plate boundary where new oceanic lithosphere is generated
3. What is the primary rock type?Basalt, formed from cooled magma
4. How do mid-ocean ridges create new ocean floor?Hot mantle material rises, melts, and forms basaltic magma. The magma rises through cracks and erupts, building new oceanic crust.
5. Why are hydrothermal vents found at mid-ocean ridges?The new hot crust meets cold seawater. The water heats up, leaches minerals, and then escapes as superheated plumes from vents.

Lithosphere: The rigid outer part of the Earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
Asthenosphere: The highly viscous, mechanically weak and ductile region of the upper mantle of Earth.
Chemosynthesis: The biological conversion of inorganic molecules into organic matter, often used by deep-sea organisms near hydrothermal vents.
Rift Valley: A large elongated depression with steep walls formed by the downward displacement of a block of land between two faults or fault systems.