Ocean Floor Rift Zone

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.

Ocean floor rift zone. Rift zones mark preferred directions of sub horizontal magma excursions from the magma chamber. As with ocean floor eruptions these are non explosive in nature. The idea that the seafloor itself moves and also carries the continents with it as it spreads from a central rift axis was proposed by harold hammond hess from princeton university and robert dietz of the u s. The continental margin is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor the other two being deep ocean basins and mid ocean ridges the continental margin is the shallow water area found in proximity to continents.

Below is a map of the main hawaiian islands showing rift zones in red lines and volcanic centers as red squares. The continental margin consists of three different features. Below is a map of the main hawaiian islands showing rift zones in red lines and volcanic centers as red squares. Note that the rift zones tend to parallel the volcano boundaries and avoid pointing at each other from fiske jackson 1972.

Deep ocean water is divided into layers or zones each with typical features of salinity pressure temperature and marine life according to their depth. In the south atlantic it separates the. Rift zones mark preferred directions of sub horizontal magma excursions from the magma chamber. The third failed rift or aulacogen may become a rift valley the atlantic ocean for instance is a result of a triple junction that started in what is now the gulf of guinea on the.

Note that the rift zones tend to parallel the volcano boundaries and avoid pointing at each other from fiske jackson 1972. Mauna loa on hawaii provides a textbook example of this kind of rift zone. The continental rise the continental slope and the continental shelf. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

Two arms of the triple junction can split to form an entire ocean. A rift zone can occur when two of earth s tectonic plates are moving away from each other. Earlier theories by alfred wegener and alexander du toit of continental drift postulated that continents in motion plowed through the fixed and immovable seafloor. Lying along the top of the abyssal plain is the abyssal zone whose lower boundary lies at about 6 000 m 20 000 ft.