The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mostly underwater mountain range of the Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean that runs from 87° N (about 333 km south of the North Pole) to subantarctic Bouvet Island at 54° S. The highest peaks of this mountain range extend above the water mark, to form islands. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge forms part of the global mid-oceanic ridge system and, like all mid-oceanic ridges, is thought to result from a divergent boundary that separates tectonic plates: the North American Plate from the Eurasian Plate in the North Atlantic, and the South American Plate from the African Plate in the South Atlantic. These plates are still moving apart, so the Atlantic is growing at the ridge, at a rate of about 2.5 centimeters per year in an east–west direction.
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