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.

Because younger crust is generally higher due to increased thermal buoyancy, the fracture zone is characterized by an offset in elevation with an intervening canyon that may be topographically distinct for hundreds or thousands of kilometers on the sea floor.

[4] In a similar method, one can use the relative ages of the seafloor on either side of a fracture zone to determine the rate of past plate motions.

[6] The flow of major North Atlantic currents is associated with this fracture zone which hosts a diverse deep water ecosystem.

[9] The area around the Heirtzler fracture zone and the Pacific–Antarctic Ridge which is a southwestern portion of the East Pacific Rise has been mapped in detail by amongst other techniques magnetostratigraphy (see picture on this page).

Geologic evidence backs this up, as rocks were found to be 23 to 27 million years younger north of the ridge than to the south.

[12] The Sovanco fracture zone is a dextral-slip transform fault running between the Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridge in the North Pacific Ocean.

Oceanic crust age differences and ridge-ridge transform faulting associated with offset mid-ocean ridge segments lead to the formation of fracture zones.
Blanco fracture zone map
Bathymetry map of the North Atlantic Ocean showing the full extent of the Charlie-Gibbs fracture zone (horizontal black lines in the center of the image)
Magnetostratigraphy of the East Pacific Rise near the Heirtzler fracture zone showing ages of sea floor spreading in millions of years (Ma)
The Romanche fracture zone with red arrows indicating directions of movements of tectonic plates