Mid-Atlantic Ridge: Meaning and Definition of

Mid'-At•lan'tic Ridge'

Pronunciation: (mid'at-lan'tik, mid"at-lan'-), [key]
  1. a north-south suboceanic ridge in the Atlantic Ocean from Iceland to Antarctica on whose crest are several groups of islands; shown by plate tectonics to be the axis along which North America has split away from Eurasia, and along which South America has split away from Africa.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.