Seafloor Spreading Theory Was Presented By

Proposed that molten material comes through the crack in mid ocean ridges which causes the seafloor to spread until some of it sinks into the mantle of the earth at trenches.

Seafloor spreading theory was presented by.

Seafloor spreading was proposed by an american geophysicist harry h. Evidence for seafloor spreading is using a mini submarine alvin scientists saw the first pictures of the ocean floor and molten material on mid ocean ridges. His theory followed that magma from the mantle could ooze up at mid oceanic rides and cool thereby expanding and pushing the plates on either side of the ridge away from it. Following this new scientific buzz harry hess a united states navy officer who served in world war ii and geologist introduced his own theory of seafloor spreading.

Together these observations were consistent with a new theory proposed by researchers who built on wegener s original idea of continental drift the theory of plate tectonics. 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. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be.

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 theory of seafloor spreading the mid ocean ridge is where the seafloor spreading occurs in which tectonic plates large slabs of earth s lithosphere split apart from each other. 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 the concept of seafloor spreading came along scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to explain how continents could move around earth s surface.

According to this theory earth s crust is broken into roughly 20 sections called tectonic plates on which the continents ride. Like the scientists before us we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

It was resurrected however with the study of seismology and further exploration of the ocean floors in the 1950s and 1960s that showed mid ocean ridges evidence in the seafloor of the earth s changing magnetic field and proof of seafloor spreading and mantle convection leading to the theory of plate tectonics. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere.