The Theory of Seafloor Spreading

Seafloor spreading is a geologic process where there is a gradual addition of new oceanic crust in the ocean floor through a

volcanic activity while moving the older rocks away from the mid-oceanic ridge. 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.

Seafloor spreading was proposed by an American geophysicist, Harry H. Hess in 1960. By the use of the sonar, Hess was
able to map the ocean floor and discovered the mid-Atlantic ridge (mid-ocean ridge). He also found out that the temperature
near to the mid-Atlantic ridge was warmer than the surface away from it. He believed that the high temperature was due to
the magma that leaked out from the ridge. The Continental Drift Theory of Alfred Wegener in 1912 is supported by this
hypothesis on the shift position of the earth’s surface.

Harry Hess
The Hess Theory. Harry Hess proposed that new
seafloor crust was continually formed at mid-ocean
ridges. Source: NASA. Hess argued that the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge was a boundary where two lithospheric plates
were rifting (being pulled apart).