How seafloor spreads

By: Raiza G. Toroctocon

Seafloor Spread
Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at , where
new is formed through and then gradually
moves away from the ridge.
Seafloor spreading helps explain in the theory of
When oceanic plates , tensional stress causes fractures
to occur in the motivating force for seafloor spreading
ridges is tectonic plate pull rather than magma pressure, although there is
typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges. At a spreading
center rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor
to form new are common at spreading
centers.
Older rocks will be found farther away from
the spreading zone while younger rocks will
be found nearer to the spreading zone.
Additionally spreading rates determine if the
ridge is a fast, intermediate, or slow. As a
general rule, fast ridges see spreading rate
of more than 9 cm/year. Intermediate ridges
have a spreading rate of 4-9 cm/year while
slow spreading ridges have a rate less than 4
cm/year.
seafloor spread
Seafloor spreading is a process
that occurs at mid-ocean ridges,
where new oceanic crust is formed
through volcanic activity and then
gradually moves away from the
ridge. Seafloor
spreading helps explain
contenintal drift in the theory of
plate tectonics.
When oceanic plates diverge, tensional stress causes fractures
to occur in the lithosphere. The motivating force for seafloor
spreading ridges is tectonic plate pull rather than magma
pressure,
* although there is typically significant magma activity
at spreading ridges. At a spreading center basaltic magma rises
up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form
new seabed. Hydrothermal vent are common at spreading
centers. Older rocks will be found farther away from the
spreading zone while younger rocks will be found nearer to the
spreading zone. Additionally spreading rates determine if the
ridge is a fast, intermediate, or slow. As a general rule, fast
ridges see spreading rate of more than 9 cm/year.
Intermediate ridges have a spreading rate of 4-9 cm/year
while slow spreading ridges have a rate less than 4 cm/year.
 sea floor spreading starts as a rift in a continental land
mass, similar to the Red Sea-East Africa Rift System
today. The process starts with heating at the base of the
continental crust which causes it to become more plastic
and less dense. Because less dense objects rise in
relation to denser objects, the area being heated
becomes a broad dome (see isostasy). As the crust bows
upward, fractures occur that gradually grow into rifts.
The typical rift system consists of three rift arms at
approximately 120 degree angles. These areas are
named triple junctions and can be found in several
places across the world today. The separated margins of
the continents evolve to form passive margins. Hess'
theory was that new seafloor is formed when magma is
forced upward toward the surface at a mid-ocean ridge.
Sea-floor spreading is what
happens at the mid-oceanic ridge
where a divergent boundary is causing
two plates to move away from one
another resulting in spreading of
the sea floor. As the plates move
apart, new material wells up and cools
onto the edge of the plates.
Abundant evidence supports the major
contentions of the seafloor-spreading
theory. First, samples of the
deep ocean floor show that basaltic
oceanic crust and overlying sediment
become progressively younger as the
mid-ocean ridge is approached, and
the sediment cover is thinner near the
ridge.
Harry Hess
It was determined that
the seafloor basalt is youngest at mid-
ocean ridges and oldest adjacent to
continents. Seafloor spreading had
been proved. Harry Hess was right.
And Alfred Wegener was vindica.ted.
GUIDE QUESTIONS
1.What will happen if the seafloor
spread?
2. Is it important why we have to
learned the seafloor spreads? Why?
3.What evidence do we have of
seafloor spreading?
4.Who came up the idea of seafloor
spreading?
5.Who discover the seafloor spread?