Sea Floor Spreading Prosses

The process of seafloor spreading leads to the formation of numerous geographical features which can be terrestrial sub terrestrial or marine features.

Sea floor spreading prosses.

Seafloor spreading is credited for the formation of the red sea as a result of the movement of the arabian and african tectonic plates away from each other. Wherever continents are bordered by deep sea trench systems as in the pacific ocean the ocean floor is plunged downward underthrusting the continents and ultimately reentering and dissolving in earth s mantle from which it had originated. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. Since the new oceanic basins are shallower than the old oceanic basins the total capacity of the world s ocean basins decreases during times of active sea floor spreading. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates.

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. See also continental drift a veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis.