But what is that can move such enormous masses? The driving force can be found in the center of the oceans where, hidden to us by the water, there is an incredible chain of mountains 65 000 kilometers long (one and a half times around the equator) which, after having crossed the entire length of the Atlantic, extends into the Indian and Pacific ocean. This mountain chain is located in the center of a deep valley: the surface feature of a deep wound in the crust of our planet. Each day, from the inner depths of the Earth, hot material rises towards the surface in this valley. The ocean bottom then opens shifting from one side to another of the ridge in the direction of the continents bordering the ocean. The hot material gradually cools and again becomes new ocean bottom which, like a raft, moves continuously to the side to make room for other material. Instead, on the edge of some oceans, but especially the Pacific ocean, the ocean crust sinks into trenches, heats up, melts and returns to the interior of the Earth. Thus, the ocean's crust flows from the ridges to the trenches in a continuous process of regeneration and destruction: and the continents, traveling on its "back" like unwilling passengers, move away from and get closer to each other in a never-ending series of movements. This motion is almost imperceptible: just a few centimeters per year, a few meters over the lifetime of a single man. But the planet Earth, where the Atlantic was created in the last 150 000 000 years and which in the same period might close upon itself, has much more time at its disposal.
But what is that can move such enormous masses? The driving force can be found in the center of the oceans where, hidden to us by the water, there is an incredible chain of mountains 65 000 kilometers long (one and a half times around the equator) which, after having crossed the entire length of the Atlantic, extends into the Indian and Pacific ocean. This mountain chain is located in the center of a deep valley: the surface feature of a deep wound in the crust of our planet. Each day, from the inner depths of the Earth, hot material rises towards the surface in this valley. The ocean bottom then opens shifting from one side to another of the ridge in the direction of the continents bordering the ocean. The hot material gradually cools and again becomes new ocean bottom which, like a raft, moves continuously to the side to make room for other material. Instead, on the edge of some oceans, but especially the Pacific ocean, the ocean crust sinks into trenches, heats up, melts and returns to the interior of the Earth. Thus, the ocean's crust flows from the ridges to the trenches in a continuous process of regeneration and destruction: and the continents, traveling on its "back" like unwilling passengers, move away from and get closer to each other in a never-ending series of movements. This motion is almost imperceptible: just a few centimeters per year, a few meters over the lifetime of a single man. But the planet Earth, where the Atlantic was created in the last 150 000 000 years and which in the same period might close upon itself, has much more time at its disposal.
