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USGS CMG InfoBank: Mid-Ocean Ridges

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Comment: 08:33 - 09:12 (00:39)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 4. The Sea Floor

Keywords: "mid-oceanic ridge", fissure

Our transcription: Ridges are broad mountainous features rising some two kilometers high above the surrounding sea floor and stretching up to 1,500 kilometers wide.

The ridges are connected in a single system snaking across the undersea landscape from one ocean to another, winding around the globe like the seam on a baseball.

Unlike the crest of a continental mountain belt, which usually consists of a series of tall peaks, the crest of a mid-ocean ridge is occupied by a cliff-rimmed valley extending along much of its length.

The walls and floor of this valley are split by numerous fissures.

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