Proof Of Plate Movement In The Sea Floor

Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean.

Proof of plate movement in the sea 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. Measurements indicate that new crust moves away from a ridge at. Due to this continuous seafloor spreading occurs and makes atlantic ocean floor to be connected to other continental crust making the ocean gets wider over the time. New species are discovered in the ocean each year by marine biologists and other ocean scientists.

Many of these newly discovered species live deep on the ocean floor in unique habitats that depend on plate movement underwater volcanoes and cold water seeps. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be. Plate tectonics theory is taught in science classrooms around the world but just 50 years ago it was a hotly contested theory. His theory of sea floor spreading maintained that new basaltic oceanic crust forms at a midoceanic ridge and is slowly pushed away on both sides toward the continents as more new crust is produced.

In the 1960s geologist harry hess proposed that the sea floor was moving outward from the midoceanic ridges. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading. Enjoy the videos and music you love upload original content and share it all with friends family and the world on youtube. The idea that the earth s crust is made up of huge tectonic plates that are floating on an ocean of molten hot magma seemed too.

List and describe the evidence for the plate tectonics theory. 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. The deep sea drilling project extracted samples of the ocean floor that provided evidence to support the hypothesis of seafloor spreading and the theory of plate tectonics. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches.

Deep ocean hydrothermal vent ecosystems were discovered in 1977. Learn how these samples. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading.