Divergent Boundary

VocabularyA mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics. This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the oceanic crust and create magma where two tectonic plates meet at a divergent boundary.

Sea-floor spreading – is process that occurs at mid-ocean ridge, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of Plate Tectonic

Rift Valley – A large elongated depression with steep walls formed be the downwards displacement of a block of the Earth’s surface between nearly parallel fault or fault system.

Sources"Plate Tectonics Laboratory." Plate Tectonics Laboratory. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. <http://www.terrasonics.com/geo101_lab_pres2.htm#slide0019.htm

"Pingvellir Rift Valley - D." Pingvellir Rift Valley - D. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2015. <http://www.jnb-birds.com/Iceland/Pingvellir_RiftValley_D.html>.

"Mid-ocean Ridge." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-ocean_ridge>.