The Mohns Ridge is an ultraslow-spreading segment of the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a Divergent boundary, divergent or constructive Plate tectonics, plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest mountai ...

located to the north of

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norway, Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: la ...

in the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded to the south by the Jan Mayen

fracture zone A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics. Lithospheric plates on eit ...

, and transitions to Knipovich Ridge in the north-east.

Geology

The ridge started forming 53 My ago, as the Greenland Plate and Eurasian Plate started separating. Four separate axial volcanic ridges have been discovered along Mohns Ridge.

Notable features

Several active and non-active hydrothermal vent fields have been located along Mohns Ridge. In 2008, a black smoker vent field named

Loki's Castle Loki's Castle is a field of five active hydrothermal vents in the Atlantic, mid-Atlantic Ocean, located at 73rd parallel north, 73 degrees north on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and Svalbard at a depth of . When they were discovered in m ...

was discovered along one of the axial volcanic ridges in the area. The Schulz Bank seamount is located on the northern part of the ridge, as Mohns Ridge transitions into the Knipovich Ridge.

Geology

Notable features

References

Further reading