Mid-Atlantic Ridge

A volcanic mountain range down the middle of the Atlantic, where the plates carrying the Americas pull away from Europe and Africa. Along its crest runs a rift valley roughly the depth and width of the Grand Canyon.

The Atlantic grows about 2 to 5 cm wider every year as new seafloor forms along this ridge.

Flat map of Earth with the oceans drained: the dry seafloor in sand to deep red-brown around green continents.

Pull the plug and watch the sea level fall, explore the seafloor as real terrain, find what lies off your own coast, and follow guided stories, from the Ice Age land bridge between England and France to the wreck of the Titanic. Everything is built from GEBCO's grid of the world's ocean floor and land.

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Stories

  • Walk from England to France: Doggerland in the Ice Age
  • Asia to America on foot: Beringia, the Ice Age land bridge
  • Where the Titanic rests: 3,800 m down in the North Atlantic
  • Drop Everest into the Mariana Trench: And watch it disappear
  • The longest mountain range on Earth: is underwater: the mid-ocean ridge

Places

  • Challenger Deep
  • Mid-Atlantic Ridge
  • Hawaiian–Emperor seamounts
  • Puerto Rico Trench
  • Kerguelen Plateau
  • Titanic wreck site
  • Monterey Canyon
  • East Pacific Rise

The highest point of each continent

  • Mount Everest
  • Aconcagua
  • Denali
  • Kilimanjaro
  • Mount Elbrus
  • Vinson Massif
  • Puncak Jaya

Data sources and credits