The causes of variations in the axial morphology of mid- ocean ridges is poorly understood and has been related to a number of factors such as spreading rate and distance from ridge-transform intersections. From bathymetric profiles from the North Atlantic, the Principal Investigator has extracted the following parameters: latitude, spreading rate, distance from ridge-transform intersection, zero-age depth, rift-valley relief, rift-valley width, and smoothed variations of the latter three variables. He has done linear correlation and multiple regression analyses of these data and reached several conclusions based on the correlations among parameters. This project will extend this work to analyze in a similar manner a world-wide bathymetric and gravity data set with the goal of determining which are the most important factors controlling the overall morphology of mid-ocean ridges.
