Ocean Sea Floor Spreading Diagram

Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Ocean sea floor spreading diagram. The process of sea floor spreading. Whats people lookup in this blog. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as 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. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them.

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. Where does subduction occur. 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. 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.

The red colors are the youngest parts of the seafloor where fresh new crust is formed as lava seeps up from the deep interior of the earth at spreading ridges as new crust forms at these spreading ridges older crust colored green in the diagram moves away from. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. Sea floor spreading worksheet key ocean floor diagram quizlet diagram of the ocean floor model of sea floor spreading sea floor spreading worksheet.

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. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. The size of an ocean is determined by how fast is created at a mid ocean ridge and how fast subduction occurs at a deep ocean trench.

World war ii gave scientists the tools to find the mechanism for continental drift that had eluded wegener. This diagram provides evidence of seafloor spreading by showing the ages of ocean floor in the atlantic and eastern pacific oceans. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed.

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. Ocean floor diagram worksheet answers.