Sea Floor Spreading Ridge

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.

Sea floor spreading ridge.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. 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. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. 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.

Basalt forming at the ridge crest picks up the existing magnetic polarity. Seafloor spreading is the mechanism for wegener s drifting continents. 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.

A mid ocean ridge mor is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics it typically has a depth of 2 600 meters 8 500 ft and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin this feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary the rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its. These surveys revealed a series of invisible magnetic stripes of normal and reversed polarity in the sea floor like that shown in the figure below. The patterns reflect the creation and spreading of oceanic crust along the mid oceanic ridges. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Seafloor spreading is the continuous process of forming new igneous rock at midocean ridges by injection of magma that forms new seafloor. Convection currents within the mantle take the continents on a conveyor belt ride of oceanic crust that over millions of years takes them around the planet s surface. Enjoy the videos and music you love upload original content and share it all with friends family and the world on youtube. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed.