Sea Floor Spreading And Subduction
Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.
Sea floor spreading and subduction. 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. Scientists discovered that new molten materials from inside earth create new. Trenches accretionary wedges prisms and volcanic or island arcs are key surface features produced by subduction. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.
Subduction is one of the two major processes of plate tectonics the other being seafloor spreading. A subduction zone is the entire area of subduction between the trench and the volcanic arc. 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 denser lithospheric material then melts back into the earth s mantle.
The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. This report describes how to build a model of the outer 300 km 180 miles of the earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics including sea floor spreading the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor transform faulting thrust faulting subduction and volcanism. Scroll down for a preview of this learning objective s games and the concepts they drive home.
Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches.
Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. Which statement accurately describes how magnetic stripes in ocean rock provide evidence of seafloor spreading. The pattern of magnetic strips shows that the seafloor is expanding at mid ocean ridges.