The East Pacific Rise is a mid-oceanic ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the Pacific Ocean. A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater Mountain range typically having a valley known as a Rift running along its axis formed by The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions It separates the Pacific Plate to the west from (north to south) the North American Plate, the Rivera Plate, the Cocos Plate, the Nazca Plate, and the Antarctic Plate. The Pacific Plate is an oceanic Tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean. The North American Plate is a Tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. The Rivera Plate is a small Tectonic plate (a microplate located off the west coast of Mexico, just south of the Baja California Peninsula. The Cocos Plate is an oceanic Tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Central America, named for Cocos Island, which rides The Nazca Plate, named after the Nazca region of southern Peru, is an oceanic Tectonic plate in the eastern Pacific Ocean basin off the west The Antarctic Plate is a Tectonic plate covering the Continent of Antarctica and extending outward under the surrounding Oceans The Antarctic It runs from an undefined point near Antarctica in the south northward to its termination at the northern end of the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea basin in southern California. " Sea of Cortez " redirects here For the book by John Steinbeck, see The Log from the Sea of Cortez. The Salton Sea is an inland Saline lake, occupying the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink, part of the larger Colorado Desert in Southern California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.
Overview
The oceanic crust is moving away from the East Pacific Rise to either side. Oceanic crust is the part of Earth's Lithosphere that surfaces in the Ocean basins On the eastern side the eastward moving plates meet the westward moving South American Plate and the North American Plate and are being subducted under them. The South American Plate is a Tectonic plate covering the Continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The North American Plate is a Tectonic plate covering most of North America, Greenland and part of Siberia. In Geology, a subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates meet and move towards one another with one sliding underneath the other The belt of volcanoes along the Andes and the arc of volcanoes through Central America and Mexico are the direct results of this collision. Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the The Andes form the world's longest exposed Mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Due east of the Baja California Peninsula, the newly-formed crust from the Rise appears to be in a transition which is thus far geologically undefined, but may become a subduction zone as well.
Near Easter Island, the East Pacific Rise meets the Chile Rise at the Easter Island and Juan Fernandez microplates, trending off to the east where it subducts under the South American Plate at the Peru-Chile Trench along the coast of southern Chile. The Chile Rise is an Oceanic ridge, a Tectonic divergent plate boundary between the Nazca and Antarctic Plates Its eastern end is the The South American Plate is a Tectonic plate covering the Continent of South America and extending eastward to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Peru-Chile Trench, also known as the Atacama Trench, is an Oceanic trench in the eastern Pacific Ocean, about 160 kilometers (100 mi off the coast Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the The southern extension of the East Pacific Rise (called the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge) merges with the Southeast Indian Ridge at the Macquarie Triple Junction south of New Zealand. The Pacific-Antarctic Ridge (PAR is a divergent tectonic plate boundary located on the seafloor of the South Pacific Ocean, separating the Pacific Plate The Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR is a divergent Tectonic plate boundary located along the seafloor of the southern Indian Ocean. The Macquarie Triple Junction is a geologic Triple junction located on the seafloor of the South Pacific Ocean south of New Zealand where three major New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island
Along the East Pacific Rise the hydrothermal vents called black smokers were first discovered and have been extensively studied. A hydrothermal vent is a Fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated Water issues A black smoker or sea vent is a type of Hydrothermal vent found on the Ocean floor. These vents are forming volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits on the ocean floor. Volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits or VMS are a type of Metal Sulfide ore deposit, mainly Cu - Zn which are associated with and Many strange deep-water creatures have been found here. The southern stretch of the East Pacific Rise is one of the fastest-spreading sections of the Earth's mid-ocean ridge system. A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater Mountain range typically having a valley known as a Rift running along its axis formed by
References
External links
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography East Pacific Rise Marine EM website
- Galapagos rise and microplate
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