Sea Floor Spreading National Geographic

This records that there is a constant movement and spreading of rocks on the ocean floor.

Sea floor spreading national geographic.

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. Seafloor spreading disproves an early part of the theory of continental drift. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. April 21 2011 scientists use cameras and sonar near the u s. Britannica national geographic photo by. Virgin islands to see the seafloor and find out how fish and other sea life use the underwa.

Keeping earth in shape seafloor spreading is just one part of plate. As buoyant molten rock rises up from deep within earth it emerges from the space between spreading tectonic plates and hardens creating a ridge. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. Supporters of continental drift originally theorized that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans.

It was concluded that the sea floor is composed of different rocks according to ages and that they are positioned equally in opposite directions.