Carnegie Ridge - History

History

The formation of the Carnegie Ridge and other aseismic ridges in this part of the Pacific started at about 20 Ma when the Galapagos hotspot formed, following the break-up of the Farallon Plate and the formation of the separate Cocos and Nazca Plates. At about 19.5 Ma, the Galapagos Rise spreading center moved so that most of the hotspot magmatism affected the Nazca Plate, forming the combined Carnegie and Malpelo Ridges. At about 14.5 Ma the spreading center jumped south, such that most of the magmatism affected the Cocos Plate and caused the Malpelo Ridge to rift away from the Carnegie Ridge. This stage caused the narrowing of the Carnegie Ridge now seen between 85° W and 87° W. At about 9.5 Ma rifting between the Malpelo and Carnegie Ridges ceased. The Galapagos Rise moved north again at about 5 Ma, leaving the hotspot entirely within the Nazca Plate, which is the current situation.

Read more about this topic:  Carnegie Ridge

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    History is not what you thought. It is what you can remember. All other history defeats itself.
    In Beverly Hills ... they don’t throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows.
    Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.
    Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)

    Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.
    Susan Sontag (b. 1933)