Characteristics Of Sea Floor Spreading

The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

Characteristics of sea floor spreading. 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. 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. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. 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. Seafloor spreading theory of lithospheric evolution that holds that the ocean floors are spreading outward from vast underwater ridges.

Maps and other data gathered during the war allowed scientists to develop the seafloor spreading hypothesis this hypothesis traces oceanic crust from its origin at a mid ocean ridge to its destruction at a deep sea trench and is the mechanism for continental drift. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. Seafloor spreading produces major characteristics of the seafloor 1 the age of the seafloor is progressively older away from midocean ridges 2 the elevation of the seafloor is progressively lower away from midocean ridges 3 the magnetic history of the seafloor bears the striped pattern of the earth s magnetic reversals and 4 older. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Learn vocabulary terms and more with flashcards games and other study tools. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. First proposed in the early 1960s by the american geologist harry h.

Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. World war ii gave scientists the tools to find the mechanism for continental drift that had eluded wegener. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.