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Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.

Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.
Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.
Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.
Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.
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598575
Cook, John E.
Slow and fast spreading centers at mid-ocean ridges.
Illustration
01/01/1998
Spreading centers.jpg
Date is approximate.
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 41, No. 1, Pg. 6:
Mid-ocean ridges have segmented architectures. The underlying processes differ somewhat in fast- and slow-spreading centers, but in general, first-order segments are hundreds of kilometers long, persist for millions to tens of millions of years and are bounded by relatively permanent, rigid-plate transform faults. First order segments are divided into several second or third-order segments, bounded by a variety of nonrigid discontinuities. These smaller segments lengthen, shorten, or even disappear in 10 million to 100,000 years, respectively. At the finest scale, fourth-order segments, about 10 kilometers long, may survive for only 100 to 10,000 years. These segments are the products of dike intrusion events, the fundamental units of crustal creation.
Illustration by Jack Cook
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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