Explorer Ridge facts for kids

The Explorer Ridge is like a giant underwater mountain range found deep in the Pacific Ocean. It's about 241 kilometers (150 miles) west of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. This ridge is a special place where two huge pieces of the Earth's crust, called tectonic plates, are slowly moving apart.

Imagine the Earth's surface as a giant puzzle made of these plates. At the Explorer Ridge, the plates are pulling away from each other. This movement allows hot, melted rock from deep inside the Earth to rise up and form new ocean floor.

The Explorer Ridge is part of a larger system of ridges in the Pacific Ocean. To its east is the Explorer Plate. This plate, along with the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Gorda Plate to its south, are all that's left of a much bigger ancient plate called the Farallon Plate. Most of the Farallon Plate has slowly slid underneath the North American Plate.

The Explorer Ridge has one main part, called the Southern Explorer Ridge, and several smaller sections. It stretches north from the Sovanco Fracture Zone to the Queen Charlotte Triple Junction, where it meets other major geological features.

How the Ridge Formed

This underwater ridge began to form about 5 to 7 million years ago. At that time, the northern part of the Juan de Fuca Plate broke off. This created the Explorer Plate along a crack in the Earth called the Nootka Fault.

This big change had a huge impact on the land nearby. After the Explorer Plate formed, volcanoes in the Cascade Range became active again. This led to the creation of the beautiful Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains we see today.

Moving Plates and Earthquakes

The ocean floor is always moving away from the Explorer Ridge on both sides. On the eastern side, the Explorer Plate is slowly sliding underneath the North American Plate. This process is called subduction. The chain of volcanoes along the Pacific Ranges are a direct result of this collision.

On the western side, the Pacific Plate is moving northwest. This movement has created the Queen Charlotte Fault. This fault is a very active crack in the Earth's crust that runs along the coast of British Columbia and southeast Alaska.

The Explorer Ridge area also has many earthquakes. Most of these earthquakes happen on or near the Explorer Transform Fault Zone. The Southern Explorer Ridge is not as deep as other spreading centers in the northeast Pacific. This suggests that a lot of volcanic activity has happened there in the last 100,000 years.

Amazing Features of the Ridge

The Explorer Ridge has a deep rift valley that runs almost its entire length. This valley is the actual boundary between the moving tectonic plates. Here, hot, melted rock, called magma, comes up from deep inside the Earth. It erupts as lava onto the seafloor, creating brand new crust for the plates.

Before 2002, the Explorer Ridge was not explored much. However, scientists knew it had strong hydrothermal vents and was very active with earthquakes. One amazing place along the Southern Explorer Ridge is called Magic Mountain.

Magic Mountain is a special area with lots of hydrothermal vents. These vents are like hot springs on the ocean floor. They shoot out hot, mineral-rich water. This water helps to form large deposits of minerals on the seafloor. Scientists think the hot water that feeds Magic Mountain comes from cracks in the Earth caused by recent plate movements and lava flows. Many strange and unique deep-sea creatures have been discovered living around these vents!

Images for kids

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  Map showing the Explorer Ridge area. The white circle shows where Magic Mountain is.

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  Pillow lavas and sulfide pieces formed from hot vents on the Southern Explorer Ridge.

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  A map of the Southern Explorer Ridge. Purple and dark blue show the deepest parts.

See also

In Spanish: Dorsal del Explorador para niños