Sea Floor Spreading On The Earth

Radiometric age dating.

Sea floor spreading on the earth.

Oceanic crust is continually produced by magma welling up along the centerlines of the mid ocean ridges. The oldest crust is coldest and lies deepest. Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity processes are the result of mantle convection. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.

How does earth s magnetic field provide evidence for 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. In this section we are going to take alfred wegener s thoughts a little further. 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.

Hess s discovery on the warmer temperature near the mid atlantic ridge when he began the ocean. 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. Evidence of sea floor spreading 1. Click here if you are a student at snowflake heber or holbrook to access the susd5 student version of seafloor spreading assignment.

If the oceanic crust reaches a deep sea trench it sinks into the trench and is lost into the mantle. Seafloor spreading brings them together. Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plate s large slabs of earth s lithosphere split apart from each other. Mantle convection is the slow churn ing motion of earth s mantle.

Let s explore another idea called seafloor spreading. Ocean floor is created by the process of subduction. Seafloor spreading as upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. 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.

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. The seafloor drilling system led to the evidence that supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis. It creates a pattern of alternating rock stripes on both sides of a mid ocean ridge. Subduction causes continents to move apart.