Earth’s crust looks solid from the surface, but it is broken into a shifting mosaic of slabs that slowly rearrange oceans and continents. Understanding how those tectonic plates first formed is one of ...

One of the Earth's best-ever baby pictures reveals how crust forms at the biggest volcanic feature on the planet. The detailed look at molten magma beneath a mid-ocean ridge, one of the giant undersea ...

A mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It typically has a depth of ~ 2,600 meters (8,500 ft) and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ...