EASTER FRACTURE ZONE

submarine fracture zone in the Earth's surface, in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The fracture zone is incompletely mapped but may be as long as 3,700 miles (5,900 km), extending east-southeastward from east of the Tuamotu archipelago, at 20 S latitude and 131 W longitude, to the Peru-Chile Trench at the 26 S latitude. The fracture zone is associated with several volcanic islands, including Easter Island, for which it was named. Maximum relief of the fracture zone's ridges and troughs is about 9,800 feet (3,000 m). The Peru Basin north of the lineament is about 13,000 feet (4,000 m) deep, several thousand feet deeper than the seafloor to the south. The fracture zone intersects the East Pacific Rise, and the crest of the rise north of the fracture zone is several hundred miles west of the southern crest. Seismic activity along the fracture zone is limited to this offset, or transform fault. Seafloor spreading is believed responsible for the formation of the fracture zone, which is a scar produced by transform faulting.