Sea Floor Spreading Clipart

Seafloor spreading is the continuous process of forming new igneous rock at midocean ridges by injection of magma that forms new seafloor.

Sea floor spreading clipart.

Strong evidence of seafloor spreading and plate tectonics. This can result in an ever widening seafloor at the. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.

The map view depicts the visible appearance of the oceanic crust. The process is continuous because forces cause opposite sides of the midocean ridge to constantly move apart making new room for the process to repeat. When it rammed into eurasia it caused the entire plate to slow down and change direction. The regions that hold the unique record of earth s magnetic field lie along the mid ocean ridges where the sea floor is spreading.

These were only sensitive enough to see the gravitational lumps caused by relatively. About 50 million years ago the indian plate was moving 15 centimeters per year about as fast as a plate can move. Such magnetic patterns led to recognition of the occurrence of sea floor spreading and they remain some of the strongest evidence for the theory of plate tectonics. 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.

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. Seafloor gravity maps aren t entirely new but until recently relied solely on data from older satellites. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. This affected active seafloor spreading along a ridge thousands of kilometers to the south where the indian plate meets the antarctic plate.

The process begins when the crust is heated from beneath by upwelling in the mantle sometimes called a mantle plume. See more ideas about seafloor spreading earth science plate tectonics. The figure below includes two images of the ocean floor. 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.

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. Seafloor spreading is a constant geologic phenomenon and a primary driver of continental drift.