Thread: Geology in action: A mid-ocean ridge you can visit on vacation!

Ah, that one. It's moved quite a bit "recently" - good link. L

On The Science Forums , somebody posted a more general article on the Rift Valley from The Guardian , 2006.

A followup. In the same region, a sheeted dike (the characteristis feature of mid-ocean ridges) formed in the course of just a few days in 2005! http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18114-giant- crack-in-africa-formed-in-just-days.html

The though occurs to me that some Africans might be a bit more concerned about whether they'll have anything to eat today or be dead tomorrow. It's nice that we can think of geology... L

You could also go to Iceland

True enough! The difference, though, is that Iceland is "merely" an exposure of the existing mid-Atlantic ridge above the current sea surface level. The activity in Afar (and the Great Rift Valley in general) is demonstrating how new mid-ocean ridges form during the fragmentation of a existing crustal plate.

This is absolutely correct, but to see a mid ocean ridge (plume as well maybe?) I'd go to Iceland, to see rifting, IN THE DESERT, which is double awesome, I'd definitely go to the Afar. It's semantics really, I suppose. I was just surprised when I saw the mid ocean ridge thing in the thread title that it wasn't about Iceland.

The reason they're describing it as "like a mid-ocean ridge" is because the volcano is producing carbonate magma, rather than the usual silicate magma. That's characteristic of the vulcanism along the mid-ocean ridge. Also (see my posting below from 4 Nov), there are sheeted dikes forming in the same area. Those are unique to mid-ocean ridges. The whole situation is really awesome, no ...

|Your link in the OP gives me this message ( Subscribe/Join AAAS or Buy a Site Pass to View Full Text. The content you requested requires a AAAS member subscription to this site or ScienceNOW Site Pass purchase. If you already have a user name and password, please sign in below. ) However, I don't see ANY text from the article, there...

ARGH. Okay, so I've learned something. They only keep the "news" articles free for a finite time. I'll update the topic text above, and also see if I can find an alternative writeup (possibly in ScienceNews). Sorry for the inconvenience.