Flexi Says: The center of an ocean basin may have different tectonic environments. For example, the Pacific Ocean largely covers a single tectonic plate--the Pacific plate. So the center of the Pacific Ocean is over the center of the Pacific plate. By contrast, the Atlantic Ocean covers several tectonic plates: the North American and Eurasian plates in the north, and the South American and African plates in the south. A mid-ocean ridge runs down the center of the Atlantic Ocean basin from north to south where the corresponding plate edges meet.
