What is the depth below sea level of the deepest known point in the rift of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR)? How wide is the widest place in the MAR rift valley?
Your questions are difficult to answer because of the variable nature of the MAR topography. It is easy to specify “typical” depth ranges and average width within the rift valley (2500-3500 meters and 10 km, respectively), but “deepest” and “widest” values depend on how you define the extent of the rift valley. Here’s the problem. If you were to walk along the entire MAR, trying to stay on the spreading axis — within the rift valley, you would soon recognize a pattern: the ridge is divided into straight, parallel segments that are offset by deep, orthogonal transform faults (often called fracture zones). Starting at the intersection of the transform fault and the spreading axis and walking along the deepest part of the valley towards the center of a segment, the typical progression would be from greater than 4000-5000 m up to high points near 2500m and then back down to 4000-5000 m at the next transform fault. You might have to walk some 100km sideways to reach the next segment and re
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