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Question

Consider the following statements

1. Mid- oceanic ridges are characterized by shallow – faci earthquakes.

2. The age of the rocks of the oceans floor are nowhere found to be older than Cretaceous period.

Select the correct answer from the code given below:


A

Neither of the statements is true

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B

Only 1 is true

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C

Only 2 is true

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D

Both the statements are true

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Solution

The correct option is D

Both the statements are true


A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonics.They are geologically active, with new magma constantly emerging onto the ocean floor and into the crust at and near rifts along the ridge axes. The crystallized magma forms new crust of basalt (known as MORB for mid-ocean ridge basalt) and gabbro. It consists of various mountains linked in chains, typically having a valley known as a rift running along its spine.

This type of oceanic mountain ridge is characteristic of what is known as an oceanic spreading center, which is responsible for seafloor spreading. The production of new seafloor results from mantle upwelling in response to plate spreading; this isentropic upwelling solid mantle material eventually exceeds the solidus and melts. The buoyant melt rises as magma at a linear weakness in the oceanic crust, and emerges as lava, creating new crust upon cooling. A mid-ocean ridge demarcates the boundary between two tectonic plates, and consequently is termed a divergent plate boundary.

The rocks making up the crust below the seafloor are youngest at the axis of the ridge and age with increasing distance from that axis. New magma of basalt composition emerges at and near the axis because of decompression melting in the underlying Earth's mantle. The oceanic crust is made up of rocks much younger than the Earth itself. Most oceanic crust in the ocean basins is less than 200 million years old. The crust is in a constant state of "renewal" at the ocean ridges. Moving away from the mid-ocean ridge, ocean depth progressively increases; the greatest depths are in ocean trenches.


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