a part of the mid-ocean ridge system running northeasterly from near New Zealand to just off the coast of Mexico in the Gulf of California. There is a lot of volcanic activity associated with this seafloor spreading center, as well as many hydrothermal vents.

The East Pacific Rise is a long north-south welt of seafloor spreading under the eastern Pacific Ocean from near Antarctica in the south northward to its termination at the northern end of the Gulf of California in the Salton Sea basin in southern California. The rise is a constructive tectonic plate margin or divergent boundary lying along the eastern margin of the Pacific Ocean basin. The spreading zone separates the Pacific Plate to the west from (south to north) the Antarctic Plate, the Nazca Plate, Cocos Plate, and the North American Plate.