Sea Floor Spreading Occurs At Mid Ocean Ridges

Usually these submarine mountain ranges have a valley running on their spine which is known as a rift and is about a mile in depth.

Sea floor spreading occurs at mid ocean ridges.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them. The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american. A chain of underwater mountains along which sea floor spreading occurs is a. 3 sea floor spreading occurs at mid ocean ridges.

The total capacity of the world s ocean basins decreases during times of active sea floor spreading. The speed of spreading affects the shape of a ridge slower spreading rates result in steep. The main geographical feature formed by the process of seafloor spreading are mid ocean ridges. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

2 molten material erupts inside the central valley of mid ocean ridges. This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. Due to this continuous seafloor spreading occurs and makes atlantic ocean floor to be connected to other continental crust making the ocean gets wider over the time.

For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Molten material erups the central valley of mid ocean ridges. The farther from a mid ocean ridge a rock sample is taken the the rock is. A mid ocean ridge mor is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics it typically has a depth of 2 600 meters 8 500 ft and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin this feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary the rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its.

2 the farther from a mid ocean ridge a rock sample is take the younger the rocks is. As the plates separate molten rock rises to the seafloor producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt.