11th August 2016 by What's What Team

The longest underwater mountain range in the world

American geologist Bruce Heezer and oceanic cartographer Marie Tharp were researchers at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, New York. In the 1950s, they expedited with a crew across the Atlantic to gather data about the ocean floor from the ocean surface. The observations proved that there was in fact a chain of mountains, as high as halfway till the surface, under the ocean. They named it Mid-Atlantic Ridge, also known as MAR.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a mid-ocean ridge, is the longest underwater mountain range in the world. It was formed due to tectonic movements under the ocean. The range is only a part of the mid-oceanic ridge extending up to 65,000 km from the Arctic Ocean till the Atlantic Ocean. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge itself covers around 10,000 km and reaches as an elevation of around 2,300 m. The Romanche Trench – one of the deepest points in the Atlantic and about 7,700 m deep – lies in this range.

#Arctic Ocean#Atlantic Ocean#Mid-Ocean Ridge#Mountain#Ocean#Ridge#Tectonic movements