Ocean Sea Floor Spreading Diagram

The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current.

Ocean sea floor spreading diagram. The process of sea floor spreading. What is an example of ocean floor material that supports sea floor spreading. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. Sea floor spreading worksheet key ocean floor diagram quizlet diagram of the ocean floor model of sea floor spreading sea floor spreading worksheet.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. 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. 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 diagram provides evidence of seafloor spreading by showing the ages of ocean floor in the atlantic and eastern pacific oceans.

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. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. Whats people lookup in this blog. 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.

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. Where does subduction occur. 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. 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.

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. 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 oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed.

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. Ocean floor diagram worksheet answers.