Ocean Floor Spreading From The Ridge Evidence

This spreading creates a successively younger ocean floor and the flow of material is thought to bring about the migration or drifting apart of the continents.

Ocean floor spreading from the ridge evidence. In the 1960s geologist harry hess proposed that the sea floor was moving outward from the midoceanic ridges. The arrows on the diagram show the ocean floor spreading from the ridge. As a result the ocean floors move like conveyor belts carrying the continents. The spreading ridge about 5 million years ago.

Sea floor spreading adds more crust to the ocean floor. Eruptions of molten material magnetic stripes in the rock of the ocean floor and the ages of the rocks themselves. Evidence for sea floor spreading. This evidence led scientists to look again at wegener s hypothesis of continental drift.

Evidence from molten material. About 2 to 3 million years ago. In sea floor spreading the sea floor spreads apart along both sides of a mid ocean ridge as new crust is added. Measurements indicate that new crust moves away from a ridge at.

At the same time older strips of rock move outward from either side of the ridge. He also found out that the temperature near to the mid atlantic ridge was warmer than the surface away from it. The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

Several types of evidence supported hess s theory of sea floor spreading. The ocean floor bends downwards part of the floor sinks back down in the mantle the process takes 10s of millions of years compare and contrast the rift valley and the mid ocean ridge rift valley one of the plate movements in a spreading boundry it forms on land along the spreading boundry two pieces of continents pull apart. New oceanic crust forming continuously at the crest of the mid ocean ridge cools and becomes increasingly older as it moves away from the ridge crest with seafloor spreading see text. Seafloor spreading was proposed by an american geophysicist harry h.

By the use of the sonar hess was able to map the ocean floor and discovered the mid atlantic ridge mid ocean ridge. What are three kinds of evidence scientists have found to support this idea. His theory of sea floor spreading maintained that new basaltic oceanic crust forms at a midoceanic ridge and is slowly pushed away on both sides toward the continents as more new crust is produced.