In 1947, a team of scientists led by Maurice Ewing utilizing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's research vessel Atlantis and an array of instruments, confirmed the existence of a rise in the central Atlantic Ocean, and found that the floor of the seabed beneath the layer of sediments consisted of basalt, not the granite which is the main constituent of continents.
1947., grupa znanstvenika vođenih Mauriceom Ewingom korišteći istraživačko plovilo "Atlantis" i niz instrumenata, potvrdila je postojanje uzdignuća u središnjem Atlantskom oceanu, te otkrila da se oceansko dno ispod slojeva sedimenta sastoji od bazalta, a ne od granita koji je učestao na kontinentima.