Sea Floor Spreading National Geographic

It was concluded that the sea floor is composed of different rocks according to ages and that they are positioned equally in opposite directions.

Sea floor spreading national geographic.

Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity. Supporters of continental drift originally theorized that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. National geographic society jeanna sullivan national.

Britannica national geographic photo by. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. 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. Seafloor spreading disproves an early part of the theory of continental drift.

As buoyant molten rock rises up from deep within earth it emerges from the space between spreading tectonic plates and hardens creating a ridge. April 21 2011 scientists use cameras and sonar near the u s. Keeping earth in shape seafloor spreading is just one part of plate. Plate tectonics also explains the stripes of rock on the seafloor with alternating magnetic properties.

This records that there is a constant movement and spreading of rocks on the ocean floor.