A long mountain range on the seafloor formed by lava eruptions through Earths crust. Mid ocean ridge. A mid ocean ridge is an underwater mountain range formed where tectonic plates spread apart and magma rises to create new ocean floor.
Imagine you're trying to bake a loaf of bread, and as it rises, the dough splits in the middle, revealing a stretch of raw dough as it expands. Similarly, a mid-ocean ridge forms when molten rock from beneath the Earth's crust pushes upward, causing the seafloor to spread apart and create a mountain range. Just as the dough surfaces and stretches apart to reveal the soft interior, the Earth's crust splits and allows lava to emerge and solidify, forming new oceanic crust at the mid-ocean ridge.
