Sea Floor Spreading Equation

R d t or r 9 5 10 7 cm 6 5 10 7 years 1 46 cm yr.

Sea floor spreading equation. Measure from the center of the spreading center to a known age point on the plate rather than from 65 ma on the eastern plate to 65 ma on the western. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. The use of the equation relating ocean floor depth to sea floor spreading rate and distance from spreading center provides a geoscience context. 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.

1cm yr to 10 cm yr. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. The use of the equation relating ocean floor depth to sea floor spreading rate and distance from spreading center provides a geoscience context. Activity ii see teaching notes and tips below is a follow up activity that has students use excel to graphically compare the model predictions to observations from several north atlantic cross sections.

Ranges of spreading throughout the world s oceans. Use the above equation to calculate spreading rate. 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.