{ "model": { "rank": 15735, "code": "thing-q3150308", "model_id": "vr.tr.divergent-boundary", "name": "divergent boundary", "purpose": "Let an agent explain divergent plate boundaries and their processes and features, identify examples, relate them to earthquakes, volcanism and ocean formation, and support learning in geology.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QTY", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q3150308/", "tier": 2, "score": 33, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 33, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q3150308", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3150308", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T04:01:57Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q3150308", "registryId": "vr.tr.divergent-boundary", "name": "divergent boundary", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QTY" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q3150308/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.divergent-boundary", "name": "divergent boundary", "purpose": "Let an agent explain divergent plate boundaries and their processes and features, identify examples, relate them to earthquakes, volcanism and ocean formation, and support learning in geology.", "definition": "A boundary between two tectonic plates that are moving apart, where new lithosphere is created by upwelling magma, forming mid-ocean ridges such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on the sea floor and continental rifts such as the East African Rift on land, characterised by shallow earthquakes, volcanism and the creation of new ocean basins; divergent boundaries are one of the three main plate boundary types alongside convergent and transform boundaries.", "what_it_is_for": "Plate boundaries where plates move apart.", "affordances": [ "explain processes and features", "identify examples", "relate to hazards and ocean formation", "support learning" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Sea-floor spreading", "Rift valleys", "Shallow earthquakes", "Basaltic volcanism" ], "appearance": "Mid-ocean ridges and rift valleys.", "visual_identification": [ "Plates moving apart with new crust forming", "Ridges and rifts", "Convergent boundaries collide; transform boundaries slide past" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "mid-ocean ridges", "continental rifts", "back-arc spreading centres", "incipient rifts", "failed rifts" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "plate boundary", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "tectonics", "why": "the wider process" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "geologist", "why": "scientists studying boundaries" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "aurora", "why": "another Earth science phenomenon entry" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Geological mapping conventions", "Seismic and volcanic hazard assessment standards", "No regulation of the process" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Rift earthquakes and volcanism", "Confusing boundary types", "Oversimplifying spreading mechanisms" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What divergent boundaries are.", "rationale": "Geology.", "layers": [ { "id": "process", "name": "Process", "description": "Process.", "findings": [ { "id": "process-finding", "name": "Process", "description": "Process.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do plates move apart, how does magma create new lithosphere, and what drives spreading?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits plate tectonics?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "features", "name": "Features", "description": "Features.", "findings": [ { "id": "features-finding", "name": "Features", "description": "Features.", "questions": [ { "text": "What features such as ridges, rift valleys, transform faults and hydrothermal vents characterise divergent boundaries?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific feature?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "examples", "name": "Examples", "description": "Examples.", "rationale": "Reference.", "layers": [ { "id": "ocean", "name": "Ocean", "description": "Mid-ocean ridges.", "findings": [ { "id": "ocean-finding", "name": "Ocean", "description": "Ocean.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where are the mid-ocean ridges, and what has been learned from studying them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific ridge?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rifts", "name": "Rifts", "description": "Continental rifts.", "findings": [ { "id": "rifts-finding", "name": "Rifts", "description": "Rifts.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do continental rifts such as the East African Rift develop, and how do they become oceans?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific rift?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "impact", "name": "Impact", "description": "Hazards and resources.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "hazards", "name": "Hazards", "description": "Hazards.", "findings": [ { "id": "hazards-finding", "name": "Hazards", "description": "Hazards.", "questions": [ { "text": "What earthquake and volcanic hazards occur at divergent boundaries, such as in Iceland and East Africa?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is a volcanic or seismic emergency present now?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "resources", "name": "Resources", "description": "Resources and life.", "findings": [ { "id": "resources-finding", "name": "Resources", "description": "Resources.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do divergent boundaries host geothermal resources, mineral deposits and vent ecosystems?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits hydrothermal vents?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did the discovery of sea-floor spreading confirm plate tectonics?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can divergent boundaries be taught with maps and models?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should mid-ocean ridges be a separate entry?", "How should plate boundary maps be linked?", "How should hazard data be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "unit, quantity or measure", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a divergent boundary, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain divergent plate boundaries and their processes and features, identify examples, relate them to earthquakes, volcanism and ocean formation, and support learning in geology.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 33 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a divergent boundary, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see: a unit is a convention. What is seen is an instrument reading in it." ], "relatedModels": [], "standing": "Described in 33 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one divergent boundary from another, and a divergent boundary from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a divergent boundary sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a divergent boundary from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a divergent boundary passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a divergent boundary between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a divergent boundary, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a divergent boundary is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definition-and-realisation", "name": "Definition, dimension and realisation", "description": "What divergent boundary is defined as and how it is realised in practice.", "rationale": "A unit is not the quantity it measures, and its definition has a history that older data still depends on.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition and dimension", "description": "The defining relation and the quantity it measures.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-record", "name": "Definition, body and date", "description": "What defines it now, and what defined it before.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-record-q01", "text": "How is divergent boundary defined, by which body, and since when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-record-q02", "text": "What was the previous definition, and what data still depends on it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "conversion", "name": "Conversion and compatibility", "description": "Relations to other units, exact or approximate.", "findings": [ { "id": "conversion-record", "name": "Conversions and their exactness", "description": "Factors, and whether each is exact by definition.", "questions": [ { "id": "conversion-record-q01", "text": "What conversions relate divergent boundary to other units, and which are exact by definition?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "conversion-record-q02", "text": "Where does rounding a conversion change a decision, and how should that be recorded?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a divergent boundary came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a divergent boundary and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a divergent boundary is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a divergent boundary, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a divergent boundary, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a divergent boundary is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 10, "questions": 28 } } } }