What Does Sea Floor Spreading Cause

Seafloor spreading occurs at a diversion boundary.

What does sea floor spreading cause.

Where does sea floor spreading occur. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. 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. As two tectonic plates slowly separate molten material rises up from within the mantle to fill the opening.

But despite their name these plains are not uniformly flat. This seafloor spreading hypothesis had been proposed a few years earlier by harry hess a petrologist at princeton university and robert dietz an oceanographer in the us coast and geodetic. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

The seafloor s permanent magnetic signatures showed that new ocean crust was created at the ridge crests and then spread outward in both directions. 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. 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.

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. They are interrupted by features like hills valleys and seamounts underwater mountains that are also hotspots for biodiversity. A deep ocean trench is an underwater. Seafloor spreading is the usual process at work at divergent plate boundaries leading to the creation of new ocean floor.

At this point tectonic plates pull away from each other and the gaps fills with magma from the mantle. Down the middle of underwater mountain ranges is a device that scientist use to map the ocean floor. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. Gravity causes older denser oceanic crust to sink beneath less dense continental crust.

In this way the rugged volcanic landscape of a mid ocean ridge is created along the plate boundary.