Sea Floor Spreading Mid Ocean Ridge Definition

Molten material from inside earth rises to the ocean floor at a mid ocean ridge.

Sea floor spreading mid ocean ridge definition. Definition of mid ocean ridge. The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. At the mid ocean ridge. Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around.

But there is a global mid ocean ridge system which looks like a series of global zippers that the mid atlantic ridge is part of. A mid ocean ridge mor is a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics it typically has a depth of 2 600 meters 8 500 ft and rises about two kilometers above the deepest portion of an ocean basin this feature is where seafloor spreading takes place along a divergent plate boundary the rate of seafloor spreading determines the morphology of the crest of the mid ocean ridge and its. The process of sea floor spreading. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

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. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. A chain of underwater mountains along which seafloor spreading occurs. At ridges in the middle of oceans new oceanic crust is created.

As a general rule fast ridges have spreading opening rates of more than 90 mm year. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. 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 happens at the bottom of an ocean as tectonic plates move apart.

The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. Seafloor spreading definition a process in which new ocean floor is created as molten material from the earth s mantle rises in margins between plates or ridges and spreads out. Wherever the sea floor is spreading the edges move apart while the.