Sea Floor Spreading Online Activity

We will observe evidence of how the sea floor has spread apart over time.

Sea floor spreading online activity.

Molten rock pushes up from the asthenosphere and pushes the plates apart at the mid ocean ridge. This is a mid ocean ridge. Mantle convection is the slow churning motion of earth s mantle. This coloring sheet visu.

This interactive activity is simple to prepare and to execute and allows the students to understand seafloor spreading and the position of newer rock and older rock in relation to. Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity processes are the result of mantle convection. Model of seafloor spreading templates one with three straight lines and another with striped bands or striped bands with arrows colored pencils or crayons. Seafloor spreading is the movement of magma through a crack in a mid oceanic ridge.

Seafloor spreading is the continuous process of forming new igneous rock at midocean ridges by injection of magma that forms new seafloor. Their crystals are pulled into alignment by the earth s magnetic field just like a compass needle is pulled towards magnetic north. Seafloor spreading is the process that occurs at mid ocean ridges where new crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. This creates new ocean crust.

Once you have labeled each map correctly you should be able to answer the series of questions that follow the exercise. It is an underwater mountain range that forms when magma pushes up on the crust at a divergent boundary. This can result in an ever widening seafloor at the. When a divergent boundary occurs in the ocean seafloor spreading is the result.

Displaying top 8 worksheets found for activity seafloor spreading. Sea floor spreading answer key. The purpose of this activity is to make a simple model that shows the evolution of oceanic crust through sea floor spreading. The process is continuous because forces cause opposite sides of the midocean ridge to constantly move apart making new room for the process to repeat.

Once the basalt cools completely into solid rock the. We call this sea floor spreading. Africa south america north. In 1960 harry hess hypothesis about seafloor spreading was a key component of the plate tectonics revolution.

This activity consists of naming the continents identifying mid ocean ridges and determining the age of the ocean floor. Most basalt magmas contain abundant molten iron. Convection currents carry heat from the lower mantle and core to the lithosphere. As magma starts to harden into rock iron rich minerals solidify first.

Try the activity and explore the reasons why the youngest rocks are located at the ridge and how the sea floor records a history of the magnetism of earth. The red line traces the path of the mid atlantic ridge. Convection currents also recycle lithospheric materials back to the mantle.