Describe The Process Of Sea Floor Spreading

There is not a unanimously accepted theory as to the cause of the rifting.

Describe the process of sea floor spreading. The process of subduction and sea floor spreading can change the size and shape of the oceans. 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. Seafloor spreading is credited for the formation of the red sea as a result of the movement of the arabian and african tectonic plates away from each other. Spreading of seafloor occurs at the mid ocean rifts where there is a continuous flow of material rising from the mantle.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. 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. Matthews related the seafloor spreading hypothesis to magnetic reversals. 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 can stop during the process but if it continues to the point that the continent is completely severed then a new ocean basin is created. 2 9 describe how fred vine and d h. The movement of these two tectonic. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current.

The red sea has not yet completely split arabia from africa but a similar feature can be found on the other side of africa that has broken completely free. When their is a reversal of polarity and new seafloor having the opposite polarity would form in the center of the older piece. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. The process of sea floor spreading.

The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. The process of seafloor spreading leads to the formation of numerous geographical features which can be terrestrial sub terrestrial or marine features. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. That is the time it takes for new rock to form at the mid ocean ridge move atoss the ocean and sink into a trench.

Because of these processes the ocean floor is renewed about every 200 million years.