WEBVTT

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Where we're diving now, we're
approximately 150 kilometers

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west of Horta in the Azores
islands. For the last few

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weeks, we've been diving on the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Right now

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we're getting towards a really
unique area which is an area

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where three of these mid-ocean
ridges intersect in what we

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call a ridge-ridge-ridge triple
junction and this separates the

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North American Plate from the
Eurasian Plate but also the

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African Plate. We can estimate
the age of the crust that we're

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on right now, this oceanic
crust that's exposed in these

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normal faults by looking at the
spreading rate of the Mid-

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Atlantic Ridge, which is about two
to four centimeters per year, and

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the distance from the ridge and
so we're on a crust that's

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maybe one to two million years
old. Spreading on the Mid-

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Atlantic Ridge started about
200 million years ago and we've

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had the opportunity to explore
some of its youngest features,

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including these heavily exposed
pillow basalts that you see

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in this normal fall.

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We've had the unique
opportunity to explore the

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processes that shape our planet
and impact the lives of those

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living in geologically active
areas, including the people of

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the Azores.