Sea Floor Spreading Science Project

As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading 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.

Sea floor spreading science project.

Click here to view all details of this science project cached view 3rd party site description. Seafloor spreading is the mechanism for wegener s drifting continents. Illustrate sea floor spreading and subduction by building a model. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Purchase this seafloor spreading activity at teachers pay teachers for 1 50 cents. Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around. In this section we are going to take alfred wegener s thoughts a little further. Convection currents within the mantle take the continents on a conveyor belt ride of oceanic crust that over millions of years takes them around the planet s surface.

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. The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. Let s explore another idea called seafloor spreading. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. In the places where the plates are moving apart magma liquid rock moves up into the cracks and solidifies making a new ocean floor just like cake batter would ooze up through.