Murray Fracture Zone

Murray Fracture Zone, submarine fracture zone in the Earth’s surface, a long mountainous lineation on the North Pacific seafloor. The zone trends east-northeast for 1,900 miles (3,000 km) from latitude 28° N, longitude 155° W (north of the Hawaiian Islands) to the base of the continental slope off Los Angeles. Maximum relief of the feature is about 6,600 feet (2,000 metres). The zone has an irregular topography of parallel asymmetric ridges, scarps, and elongate depressions. Regional depths of the seafloor north of the fracture zone are several hundred metres greater than those to the south. The patterns of magnetic intensity of the seafloor rocks in the area appear to be displaced laterally by 90 to 420 miles (145 to 675 km), and rocks of the northern block are tens of millions of years older than adjacent rocks south of the fracture zone. This eastward displacement of the seafloor north of the fracture zone is only apparent, resulting from seafloor spreading at a mid-ocean ridge that was active from about 80 to 10 million years ago. Neither earthquakes nor volcanic activity occur along the fracture zone at present.