The processes that take place along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are well studied and understood by today's geologists. The ridge is one part of the dynamic system on the Earth that geologists refer to as plate tectonics. Today we have a very good idea of how the plates move along the surface of the Earth, slipping past each other in some places, growing in others, and colliding together to form the tallest peaks and deadly volcanoes and earthquakes. However, as little as 41 years ago the mechanism that the mid-oceanic ridges are a part of was only understood by a few geologists who were denounced by the majority of the geologists in the world. The concept that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge represents is referred to as seafloor spreading and was championed by a Princeton University geologist, Harry Hess (1906-1969).
Admiral Hess (he served in the Pacific in World War 2 and reached the rank of Rear Admiral in the Naval Reserve) met resistance with his hypothesis of seafloor spreading. Hess's idea was presented in the 1962 book History of Ocean Basins, describing how magma oozes from the Earth's surface along oceanic ridges. The new seafloor spreads away from the ridges eventually sinking into the deep ocean trenches found across the globe. Most geologists at the time resisted Hess's hypothesis, mostly due to the lack of strong evidence. Hess was undaunted and in the next few years he and other geologists were able to prove nearly all the points in his hypothesis.
