Mid-Atlantic Ridge Quiz: Where the Seafloor Spreads
Beneath the ocean runs a mountain chain longer than any on land, and this Mid-Atlantic Ridge quiz explains how it splits the seafloor apart. Play an interactive set of 10 questions on plate boundaries, spreading rates, Iceland's Þingvellir, Marie Tharp's maps, Harry Hess, magnetic stripes, the Azores and the Lost City vents.
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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds
Type
What kind of plate boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
Plates
Which plates separate along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
Rate
Roughly how fast does the Atlantic widen at the ridge?
Iceland
Where can visitors see the ridge on land?
Tharp
Which scientist mapped the ridge's central rift valley in the 1950s?
Hess
Who proposed seafloor spreading in the early 1960s?
Stripes
What do magnetic stripes on the seafloor record?
Islands
Which island group in the Atlantic lies near the ridge?
Vents
What is the Lost City discovered in 2000?
Length
Roughly how long is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
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Scroll down to see the explanation for each question.
Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions
- Q1: What kind of plate boundary is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
Answer: Divergent, where plates move apart
New crust forms as magma rises between separating plates.
- Q2: Which plates separate along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
Answer: North American and Eurasian
In the south, the South American and African plates separate.
- Q3: Roughly how fast does the Atlantic widen at the ridge?
Answer: About 2 to 5 centimeters a year
That is roughly as fast as fingernails grow.
- Q4: Where can visitors see the ridge on land?
Answer: Iceland
Þingvellir National Park sits in a rift valley on the ridge.
- Q5: Which scientist mapped the ridge's central rift valley in the 1950s?
Answer: Marie Tharp
Working with Bruce Heezen, she revealed a valley running along the crest.
- Q6: Who proposed seafloor spreading in the early 1960s?
Answer: Harry Hess
Hess suggested the seafloor forms at ridges and moves outward.
- Q7: What do magnetic stripes on the seafloor record?
Answer: Reversals of Earth's magnetic field
Matching stripes on both sides of the ridge supported seafloor spreading.
- Q8: Which island group in the Atlantic lies near the ridge?
Answer: The Azores
Volcanic activity at the ridge built the Azores.
- Q9: What is the Lost City discovered in 2000?
Answer: A field of tall hydrothermal vents
Its carbonate towers rise up to 60 meters near the ridge.
- Q10: Roughly how long is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge?
Answer: About 16,000 km
It runs from the Arctic Ocean to near Antarctica.
Mid-Atlantic Ridge Quiz – The Mountain Range Under the Ocean
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an underwater mountain range about 16,000 km long, running down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It marks a divergent boundary where tectonic plates pull apart by a few centimeters a year.
In the 1950s Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen mapped a rift valley along its crest. Harry Hess proposed seafloor spreading, and magnetic stripes recording field reversals confirmed that new crust forms at the ridge.
Iceland sits on the ridge, where Þingvellir lies in a rift valley. The Azores and other islands formed from its volcanism, and hydrothermal vents such as the Lost City host unusual life.
What This Quiz Teaches
Earth science students will enjoy these questions.
- What kind of boundary it is
- How fast it spreads
- Where it rises above sea level
- Who mapped it
- What lives at its vents
Did You Know?
- Divers can swim between plates in Iceland's Silfra fissure.
- Black smoker vents release mineral-rich water.
- The ridge is part of a global mid-ocean ridge system.
- Ascension Island lies close to the ridge.
- Earthquakes are common but usually small along the ridge.
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