AdministratorWhat is seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other. Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other.
What are the three types of sea floor spreading?
There are three types of plate-plate interactions based upon relative motion: convergent, where plates collide, divergent, where plates separate, and transform motion, where plates simply slide past each other.
What causes seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading creates new oceanic crust at a mid-ocean ridge. When this new material reaches the end of the plate and comes into contact with another plate, whether continental or not, a convergent or a transform boundary will occur.
Who proved that the seafloor is spreading?
Harry Hess
Harry Hess: One of the Discoverers of Seafloor Spreading.
What are the features of seafloor spreading?
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 …
Where does seafloor spreading occur?
mid-ocean ridges
Seafloor spreading or Seafloor spread 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.
What happens during the process of seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from the mantle’s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor. Eventually, the crust cracks.
How does sea floor spreading affect marine life?
Seafloor spreading can also drastically change sea levels. When oceanic crust parts ways with mid-ocean ridges, they can sometimes sink even lower than before, which can actually lower the sea level.
What are the 5 steps of sea floor spreading?
What are the steps in seafloor spreading?
- Magma comes out of the rift valley.
- Magma cools to rock and hardens.
- Rock is pushed away as new rock is formed at MOR.
- Oceanic crust and continental crust meet at the trench.
- Oceanic crust bends down under the continental crust.
- Gravity pulls rock towards mantle.
What are the steps in the process of sea floor spreading?
What are the steps in the process of sea floor spreading? Magma comes out of the rift valley. Magma cools to rock and hardens. Rock is pushed away as new rock is formed at MOR. Oceanic crust and continental crust meet at the trench. Oceanic crust bends down under the continental crust. Gravity pulls rock towards mantle. Rock melts to mantle.
What evidence supports seafloor spreading?
Evidence of Sea Floor Spreading. Harry Hess’s hypothesis about seafloor spreading had collected several pieces of evidence to support the theory. This evidence was from the investigations of the molten material, seafloor drilling, radiometric age dating and fossil ages, and the magnetic stripes.
What are facts about seafloor spreading?
• Seafloor spreading is the movement of two oceanic plates away from each other (at a divergent plate boundary), which results in the formation of new oceanic crust (from magma that comes from within the Earth’s mantle) along a mid- ocean ridge. Where the oceanic plates are moving away from each other is called a zone of divergence.
What evidence exists for sea floor spreading?
Sea floor continues to spread apart as new crust is added. Processes repeats like a conveyor belt, carrying continents along with them. Evidence supported Hess’s theory of sea-floor spreading: eruptions of molten material, magnetic stripes in the rock of the ocean floor, and the ages of the rocks themselves.