Sea Floor Spreading On The Earth

Subduction causes continents to move apart.

Sea floor spreading on the earth.

The seafloor drilling system led to the evidence that supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis. Purchase this seafloor spreading activity at teachers pay teachers for 1 50 cents. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. Ocean floor is created by the process of subduction.

Let s explore another idea called seafloor spreading. The seafloor spreading hypothesis as oceanic crust forms and spreads moving away from the ridge crest it pushes the continent away from the ridge axis. Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plate s large slabs of earth s lithosphere split apart from each other. It creates a pattern of alternating rock stripes on both sides of a mid ocean ridge.

Radiometric age dating. The oldest crust is coldest and lies deepest. Sea floor spreading is driven by crust formation along the mid ocean ridges meandering undersea mountain ranges that span earth like the seams of a baseball. Click here if you are a student at snowflake heber or holbrook to access the susd5 student version of seafloor spreading assignment.

Seafloor spreading as upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. Mantle convection is the slow churn ing motion of earth s mantle. If the oceanic crust reaches a deep sea trench it sinks into the trench and is lost into the mantle. Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid ocean ridges where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge.

Ocean basins get narrower as a result of seafloor spreading. How does earth s magnetic field provide evidence for seafloor spreading. Oceanic crust is continually produced by magma welling up along the centerlines of the mid ocean ridges. Samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process.

In this section we are going to take alfred wegener s thoughts a little further. 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. Evidence of sea floor spreading 1. Seafloor spreading brings them together.