Admin What is a fact about seafloor spreading?
Seafloor spreading happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart. It forms new crust as the plates move away from each other. The new crust then slowly moves away from the ridge. It is a place of earthquakes and volcanos.
What did seafloor spreading observations reveal?
What was discovered was a large chain of mountains along the deep seafloor, called mid-ocean ridges. Scientists also discovered deep sea trenches along the edges of continents or in the sea near chains of active volcanoes. Finally, large, flat areas called abyssal plains we found.
What are 2 pieces of evidence supporting seafloor spreading?
Several types of evidence supported Hess’s theory of sea-floor spreading: eruptions of molten material, magnetic stripes in the rock of the ocean floor, and the ages of the rocks themselves.
How does the seafloor spread for kids?
Seafloor spreading happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart. The seafloor moves and carries continents with it. At the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (and other places), material from the upper mantle rises through the faults between oceanic plates. It forms new crust as the plates move away from each other.
What is seafloor spreading and why is it important?
Significance. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. When oceanic plates diverge, tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. At a spreading center, basaltic magma rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new seabed.
What makes the lithospheric plate move?
Earth’s crust, called the lithosphere, consists of 15 to 20 moving tectonic plates. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other. This movement is called plate motion, or tectonic shift.