Seafloor spreading occurs along
mid-ocean ridges
—large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, for instance, separates the North American plate from the Eurasian plate, and the South American plate from the African plate.
What is the famous seafloor spreading site?
The Pacific
is also home to one of the world’s most active spreading centers (the East Pacific Rise) with spreading rates of up to 145 +/- 4 mm/yr between the Pacific and Nazca plates. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a slow-spreading center, while the East Pacific Rise is an example of fast spreading.
What are the 4 evidences of seafloor 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
.
Where is active seafloor spreading occurring today?
Where is active sea floor spreading occurring today? Seafloor spreading is the movement of old rock that is being pushed by the new young oceanic crust. This would be a divergent since the plates are separating from each other. Active seafloor spreading is occurring at
mid-ocean ridges
.
What are the three types of seafloor 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 are the features of seafloor?
Features of the ocean include
the continental shelf, slope, and rise
. The ocean floor is called the abyssal plain. Below the ocean floor, there are a few small deeper areas called ocean trenches. Features rising up from the ocean floor include seamounts, volcanic islands and the mid-oceanic ridges and rises.
What happens when the seafloor spreads?
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 seafloor spreading and why is it important?
Today it refers to the
processes creating new oceanic lithosphere where plates move apart
. Seafloor spreading replaces the lithosphere destroyed by subduction, and exerts important influences on Earth’s chemical and biological evolution.
What is one piece of evidence of seafloor spreading?
There is lots of evidence that proves that seafloor spreading is occurring. One piece of evidence is
mid-ocean ridges
. Rocks found near mid-ocean ridges are young and get older as the distance from the ocean ridge increases.
Who proved that the seafloor is spreading?
The seafloor spreading hypothesis was proposed by the
American geophysicist Harry H. Hess
in 1960.
Is the Earth’s diameter getting bigger because of seafloor spreading?
New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth’s surface. But
the Earth isn’t getting any bigger
.
Why do tectonic plates move?
The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates
to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.
What is the major evidence that seafloor spreading creates new lithosphere?
When the Earth’s magnetic field reverses, the magnetized minerals align in the opposite direction.
The record of magnetic reversals is carried away from each side of the spreading center of a
mid-ocean ridge, showing that the molten rock is creating new lithosphere.
What kind of activity causes seafloor spreading?
Volcanic activity
causes the seafloor to spread along oceanic ridges, forming new areas of crust and mantle. After being generated, this new oceanic lithosphere cools down and contracts by up to 3% of its own volume.
Which boundary is seafloor destroyed?
You are correct that the seafloor is destroyed at
subduction zones
, but it is simultaneously being created at mid-ocean ridges. see figure 1 . Figure 1: Seafloor spreading at a mid-ocean ridge(where new crust is being created) and it’s destruction at a subduction zone.
Do spreading centers move?
Spreading centers occur
where two plates are moving away from each other
, and deep cracks are opened through the crust. … Subduction zones are associated with regions where two plates are moving towards each other, and the crust of the earth is shortened.
