What is good about seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity. Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. Subduction is another. Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart.
How would you describe seafloor spreading?
Sea-floor spreading is what happens at the mid-oceanic ridge where a divergent boundary is causing two plates to move away from one another resulting in spreading of the sea floor. As the plates move apart, new material wells up and cools onto the edge of the plates.
What is your conclusion about seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Basaltic magma rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new sea floor. Older rocks will be found farther away from the spreading zone while younger rocks will be found nearer to the spreading zone.
What is the best evidence of seafloor spreading?
The study of the repeated reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles over time has provided convincing evidence of seafloor spreading. Objective: To explore how magnetic studies and age information provide evidence for seafloor spreading that explains why oceanic crust is younger than continental crust.
What is another name for seafloor spreading?
The phenomenon is known today as plate tectonics. In locations where two plates move apart, at mid-ocean ridges, new seafloor is continually formed during seafloor spreading.
What is sea floor spreading and why is it important?
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. This idea played a pivotal role in the development of plate tectonics, a theory that revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century.
What are facts about seafloor spreading?
What Happens During the Process of Seafloor Spreading? History. Scientists originally believed that drifting was an occurrence exclusive to continents through continental drifts. Geographic Features. The process of seafloor spreading leads to the formation of numerous geographical features which can be terrestrial, sub-terrestrial, or marine features. Mid-Ocean Ridges.
What is the theory of seafloor spreading?
The Theory of Seafloor Spreading. Seafloor spreading is a geologic process where there is a gradual addition of new oceanic crust in the ocean floor through a volcanic activity while moving the older rocks away from the mid-oceanic ridge.
What is the evidence for seafloor spreading?
Molten materials and magnetic stripes are the evidence of seafloor spreading. When scientists studied patterns in the rocks of the ocean floor, they found more support for sea-floor spreading.