The only reason Iceland is still above sea level is the constant activity of the mantle plume. As the two tectonic plates that meet in the Mid Atlantic; the Eurasian plate and the North American plate are constantly moving away from each other as Iceland is pulled apart by 2 cm every year.

transform faults

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an ocean ridge that runs along the boundaries of four major continental plates across the Atlantic Ocean. The majority of the mountains and rifts this ridge has created are covered by ocean, but the country of Iceland is the exception.

Iceland formed by the coincidence of the spreading boundary of the North American and Eurasian plates and a hotspot or mantle plume – an upsurge of abnormally hot rock in the Earth´s mantle. As the plates moved apart, excessive eruptions of lava constructed volcanoes and filled rift valleys.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge includes a deep rift valley that runs along the axis of the ridge along nearly its entire length. This rift marks the actual boundary between adjacent tectonic plates, where magma from the mantle reaches the seafloor, erupting as lava and producing new crustal material for the plates.

Consequent movement of the ocean floor and of the continents in opposite directions outward from the ridge is widening the Atlantic basin at an estimated rate of about 0.4 inch (1 cm) to a maximum of about 4 inches (10 cm) per year.

The Atlantic Ocean grows 1.5 inches wider every year. That’s because the tectonic plates undergirding the Americas are separating from those beneath Europe and Africa.

Thus we get a result of 250, meaning that in 250 years the Atlantic Ocean will spread out 500 cm in total.

Answer: 1,00,000 centimeters make a kilometer. 1 kilometer is equal to 1000 meters and 1 meter is equal to 100 centimeters.

Well, from a long time from know the continent will get smaller base on how much the Atlantic has expanded the continents will get smaller and the ocean will get bigger basically their will be a bigger ocean.

It will take years for the Atlantic Ocean to grow by centimeters. What might happen to the continents if the Atlantic Ocean continues to expand because of movement along this ridge? If the ocean continues to expand, North America and South America will move farther away from Africa and Eurasia.

“You basically see just your crew, the mission itself, water, and nature.” The results reveal forceful upwellings of material from the lower mantle, a layer of Earth located hundreds of miles beneath the seafloor, which are helping push the Atlantic continents apart, thereby contributing to the widening of this ocean.

The Atlantic Ocean is getting bigger and the Pacific Ocean is getting smaller. Again, this comes down to plate tectonics because the Pacific Ocean has subduction zones on three sides — where the Pacific plate submerges beneath other plates.

the Pacific Ocean