Sea Floor Spreading For Kids

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.

Sea floor spreading for kids.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The seafloor moves and carries continents with it. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created.

The process of sea floor spreading. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. Ucla ess 15 ocean climate science communication project for prof. Learn facts about seafloor spreading for kids.

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. The first comprehensive attempt at such an explanation was made by harry h. The seafloor moves and carries continents with it. At ridges in the middle of oceans new oceanic crust is created.

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. I m sorry you somehow found this. Hess of the united states in a widely circulated manuscript written in 1960 but not formally published for several years.

At the mid atlantic ridge and other places material from the upper mantle rises through the faults between oceanic plates. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. The existence of these three types of large striking seafloor features demanded a global rather than local tectonic explanation. Seafloor spreading happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart.

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. 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. 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. Tripati in winter 2014 christopher lim casey le kristi yagi.

I didn t know it would come to this. According to this theory the floor of the ocean is moving or spreading away from ridges by repetitive magma intrusion that split and spread the older sea floor causing them to be moved away from the ridge in a nearly continuous horizontal position. Plate tectonics plate tectonics hess s seafloor spreading model.