Mid-Ocean Ridges and Hydrothermal Activity

Mid-Ocean Ridges The mid-ocean ridge system is the largest continuous topographic feature on the Earth’s surface, comprising a mountain range of volcanoes and faulted blocks that, in places, rise several kilometres from the surrounding sea floor. Sections of the ridge system extend throughout all of the world’s oceans (Figure 10.1) and total more than 50,000 km in length, some four times the diameter of the globe.