Constructive margins occur where two plates diverge from each other and new crust is created in the boundary. Sea floor spreading occurs in the mid Atlantic where the north and south American plates are being pulled apart by convection currents from the Eurasian and African plates. This may cause huge rift valleys initially to occur on the sea floor, but molten rock and magma from the mantle rises to fill any possible gap between the two plates. This magma produces sub-marine volcanoes which, given time may grow above sea-level. An example of this is Surtsey in southern Iceland. A cross section can be seen in fig 1 below.
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