Oceanic crust
From GeoClasses
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Pillow Basalts
Pillow basalt. From NOAA Ocean Explorer
Pictures and drilled cores from the floor of the ocean basins indicate that oceanic crust is made, primarily of basalt, specifically pillow basalts, which are rocks formed from the eruption of volcanos under water.
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Mid-Ocean ridges
The Atlantic Ocean floor Source: National Geophysical Data Center
When we looked at the shape of the continents, you must have noticed the ridge of mountains that run down the center of the Atlantic ocean.
This mountain range is a line of volcanoes called the Mid ocean ridge, and you can find a similar range anywhere continents are moving apart.
These rifts are where the new oceanic crust is created. They are sometimes called spreading centers.
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