What Evidence Exists For Sea Floor Spreading Explain Read More

Surprisingly earth s magnetic poles have reversed themselves many times during earth s history.

What evidence exists for sea floor spreading explain read more.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The evidence exists in the extrusive igneous rock basalt on the ocean floor near the mid oceanic ridges. He suggested that continents moved around the earth like giant rafts. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.

Tuzo wilson combined the continental drift and seafloor spreading hypotheses to propose the theory of plate tectonics. You read earlier that earth behaves like a giant magnet with a north pole and a south pole. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. Fellow scientists at the time thought the theory was ludicrous.

Alfred wegener a german meteorologist born in 1880 developed the idea of continental drift. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. 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. In 1965 a canadian geophysicist j.

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. When scientists studied patterns in the rocks of the ocean floor they found more support for sea floor spreading. Tuzo said that earth s crust or lithosphere was divided into large rigid pieces called plates. 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.

Plate tectonics theory convection currents and sea floor spreading. Evidence from magnetic stripes. Supporting evidence for seafloor spreading enter your search terms. Divergent boundaries within continents initially produce rifts which eventually become rift valleys most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic.