Oceanic Feature Age Relative to Ridge Implied Formation Time Ridge Axis Youngest Present Day First Magnetic Anomaly ~5-10 million years old Late Miocene Mid-Sea Sediment Layer ~100 million years old Cretaceous Continental Shelves ~150+ million years old Jurassic Ongoing Creation and Activity The formation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is not a singular event locked in the past; it is a continuous process that defines the current geography of the Atlantic. Understanding when the Mid-Atlantic Ridge formed requires looking back hundreds of millions of years to a time when the continents we recognize today were joined together in a single supercontinent.
Geological Evidence: Determining the Age of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
As the North American and Eurasian plates drifted to the north and west, and the South American and African plates moved in opposite directions, the space between them needed to be filled. 5 centimeters per year, a process that has been steadily widening the Atlantic Ocean for millions of years.
Evidence from the Ocean Floor Geologists have determined the age of the ridge and the seafloor it creates through the study of magnetic striping and sediment accumulation. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the physical manifestation of this divergence, a boundary where new oceanic crust is created as magma rises from the mantle and solidifies.
Geological Evidence for the Age of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Formation
The ridge grows at an average rate of about 2. This supercontinent, which existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, began to fracture around 175 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
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