List of fracture zones

Map
Approximate surface projection on oceans of named fracture zones (orange). Also shown are relevant present plate boundaries (white) and associated features (lighter orange). Click to expand to interactive map.[1]
Major active fractures zones worldwide are in the orange shaded areas perpendicular to the black lines of the mid-ocean ridges of the major oceanic plates.

Fracture zones are common features in the geology of oceanic basins. Globally most fault zones are located on divergent plate boundaries on oceanic crust. This means that they are located around mid-ocean ridges and trend perpendicular to them. The term fracture zone is used almost exclusively for features on oceanic crust; similar structures on continental crust are instead termed transform or strike slip faults. The term fracture zone has a distinct geological meaning, but it is also used more loosely in the naming of some oceanic features. Fracture zones are much longer than wide, but may have feature complexity within their width. Not all named fracture zones are active, indeed only the central portion of those still forming usually is, in an area of active transform faulting associated with a mid-ocean ridge. Classic fracture zones remain significant ocean floor features with usually different aged rocks on either side of the fracture zone due to past tectonic processes. Some fracture zones have been created by mid-ocean ridge segments that have been subducted and that part may no longer exist.