Médio-Atlantic dorsal

The dorsal the médio-Atlantic is a generally immersed assembly line. It is located in the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.

It starts with 333 kilometers in the south of the Arctic Circle with 87° of northern latitude. It stops close to the Bouvet island by 54° of southern latitude. The highest peaks of this assembly line form islands on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

The médio-Atlantic dorsal belongs to the plate tectonics. It constitutes a system diverge between:

the North-American plate and the Eurasian plate in the North Atlantic,
the South American plate and the African plate in the South Atlantic.

These tectonic plates deviate the Atlantic Ocean continuously thus increases on the level of the dorsal from approximately 5 to 10 centimetres per annum in the East-West direction.

The dorsal was discovered by Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp in the Fifties. The discovery of this dorsal led to the general acceptance of the theory of Alfred Wegener on the continental drift.

The médio-Atlantic dorsal, segmented by many zones of fracture made up of transforming faults, can be divided into several sections of which the Dorsale Kolbeinsey between Iceland and Jan Mayen and the Dorsale Mohns in the North-East of Jan Mayen.

Ends

At its southern end, close to the island Grooving plane, the médio-Atlantic dorsal is transformed into Indo-Atlantic dorsal and continuous towards the east by the plate of Crozet, whereas in the west it is prolonged by the dorsal of Scotia. Close to the equator, the médio-Atlantic dorsal is divided in the edge of North Atlantic and the Atlantic edge of the south by the ditch of Romanche, a narrow ditch a maximum depth of 7758 m, one of the major places of the Atlantic Ocean.

Islands created by the médio-Atlantic dorsal, of north in the south

Hemisphere-north:

Jan Mayen (Beerenberg, 2277 m, At 71°06' NR, 08°12' W), Arctic Ocean
Kolbeinsey (5 m)
Iceland (Hvannadalshnjúkur in the Vatnajökull, 2109.6 m, At 64°01' NR, 16°41' W),
the Azores (Bridged C Pico gold Pico Alto, one Pico Island, 2351 m, At 38°28 ′ 0 ″ NR, 28°24 ′ 0 ″ W)
Bermuda (Town Hill, one Hand Island, 76 m, At 32°18 ′ NR, 64°47 ′ W)
Rocks of Saint-Pierre and Saint-Paul (Southwest Rock'n'roll, 22.5 m, At 00°55 ′ 08 ″ NR, 29°20 ′ 35 ″ W)

Hemisphere-south:

Rise (The Peak, Green Mountain, 859 m, At 07°59' S, 14°25' W)
Tristan da Cunha (Queen Mary' S Peak, 2062 m, At 37°05' S, 12°17' W)
Island Gough (Edinburgh Peak, 909 m, At 40°20' S, 10°00' W)
Island Grooving plane (Olavtoppen, 780 m, At 54°24' S, 03°21' E)

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