Causes Sea Floor Spreading

Which processes change the size and shape of the oceans.

Causes sea floor spreading. 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. Gravity causes older denser oceanic crust to sink beneath less dense continental crust. 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. 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.

Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. A chain of underwater mountains along which sea floor spreading occurs is a. Seafloor spreading happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates.

Sea floor spreading is caused by the continual injection of magma from the sea bed in between ridges found in mid ocean. Oceanic crust on both sides of the ridge shows matching patterns of reversed and normal magnetic polarity. 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. Due to this continuous seafloor spreading occurs and makes atlantic ocean floor to be connected to other continental crust making the ocean gets wider over the time.

Which evidence causes most scientists to believe that seafloor spreading occurs at the mid atlantic ridge. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate pull rather than magma pressure although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. At ridges in the middle of oceans new oceanic crust is created. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically. Injection of magma causes formation of new sea floor.

Forces cause the sea floor on each side of the mid ocean ridge to move in opposite directions each side belonging to a different lithospheric plate. The seafloor moves and carries continents with it. Seafloor spreading helps to explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. As the plates move apart new material wells up and cools onto the edge of the plates.