Magnitude 5.5 Earthquake Strikes Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge; No Casualties Reported
A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge on Nov. 14, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake occurred at 16:26 UTC at a depth of 10.0 km, with its epicenter at 30.122 degrees north, 42.635 degrees west beneath the Atlantic Ocean. The USGS event, catalogued as us7000ty84, has been reviewed by a seismologist.
The USGS PAGER system assigned the event a green alert level, meaning significant casualties and damage are not expected. Because the epicenter lies in a remote, uninhabited stretch of ocean floor, the USGS received no felt reports, and there were no reports of casualties or damage and no tsunami bulletin associated with the event.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the submarine mountain system running the length of the Atlantic Ocean, a divergent boundary where the American plates are slowly pulling away from the Eurasian and African plates and new oceanic crust is formed. Most of the ridge lies deep underwater, surfacing above sea level in places such as Iceland.
Earthquakes are frequent along the ridge as the plates separate, but most occur far from populated areas. The magnitude 5.5 event had no known impact on shipping or coastal regions.
(Source: U.S. Geological Survey)
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，大西洋中脊在冰岛露出海面的段落（Bar Harel 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0）
