Sea Floor Spreading Occurs

A deep ocean trench is an underwater.

Sea floor spreading occurs. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid ocean ridges where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Where does sea floor spreading occur. Earlier theories by alfred wegener and alexander du toit of continental drift postulated that.

Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid ocean ridges where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Because of these processes the ocean floor is renewed about every 200 million years. Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid ocean ridges where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches.

The process of subduction and sea floor spreading can change the size and shape of the oceans. 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. Molten material erups the central valley of mid ocean ridges. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.

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. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Seafloor spreading takes place at the boundaries of divergent plates whereby as the divergent tectonic plates move away from each other hot convectional currents from the mantle cause the lithosphere the ocean crust to become less dense ductile and brittle and therefore rise above the surrounding crust to form a submarine mountain. 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.

That is the time it takes for new rock to form at the mid ocean ridge move atoss the ocean and sink into a trench.