The rate at which south america and africa are moving apart by measuring the distance between the 2 continents in a direction parallel to oceanic fracture zones.
Sea floor spreading mid atlantic ridge.
The south atlantic ocean formed by seafloor spreading at the mid atlantic ridge.
He also found out that the temperature near to the mid atlantic ridge was warmer than the surface away from it.
Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.
Seafloor spreading was proposed by an american geophysicist harry h.
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.
By the use of the sonar hess was able to map the ocean floor and discovered the mid atlantic ridge mid ocean ridge.
The dates revealed that the atlantic ocean was opening by seafloor spreading from the mid atlantic ridge at a rate of about 0 02 metres per year.
Geologists can get a rough estimate of the spreading rate i e.
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.