Sea Floor Spreading Made Easy

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.

Sea floor spreading made easy. 7 years ago. Two pieces of paper are pulled apart from between two desks or tables while one student marks the pages with bands of color to represent areas of reversed and normal magnetic polarity. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. 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.

Sea floor spreading made easy geological society of america. Once you have read through the directions and are ready to. Sea floor spreading made easy geological society of america. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Two pieces of paper are pulled apart from between two desks or tables while one student marks the pages with bands. During this activity you will investigate sea floor spreading and magnetic reversals. Get pdf 845 kb abstract. Follow the instructions on the student worksheet to help get you started with this activity.

In 1912 when alfred wegener proposed that the continents had once been joined together and had split apart the biggest weakness in his hypothesis was the. Sea floor spreading made easy. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. For this activity you will need to work with a partner or in a group of 3.

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. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. Sea floor spreading made easy. At ridges in the middle of oceans new oceanic crust is created.

Seafloor spreading happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate pull rather than magma pressure although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. This activity which can be performed by the teacher and an assistant or by students working in pairs shows the mechanism of seafloor spreading.

This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century. The process of sea floor spreading. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. It includes background material explaining the layers of earth.