Locations Of Sea Floor Spreading

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.

Locations of sea floor spreading.

Lab activity 2 6 recognizing seafloor spreading there are several locations on the earth where seafloor spreading takes place. The process of sea floor spreading. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere.

Plate tectonics theory dealing with the dynamics of earth s outer shell that revolutionized earth sciences by providing a uniform context for understanding mountain building processes volcanoes and earthquakes as well as the evolution of earth s surface and reconstructing its past continents and oceans. Seafloor spreading helps to explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. On the ridge flanks the depth of the seafloor or the height of a location on a mid ocean ridge above a base level is correlated with its age age of the lithosphere where depth is measured.

In locations where two plates move apart at mid ocean ridges new seafloor is continually formed during seafloor spreading. You will differentiate between locations where seafloor spreading occurs and where it does not occur then relate the rate of plate movements to the rate of lithosphere creation. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. 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.

At the spreading center on a mid ocean ridge the depth of the seafloor is approximately 2 600 meters 8 500 ft. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.