Seafloor Spreading Theory Was Presented By

Following this new scientific buzz harry hess a united states navy officer who served in world war ii and geologist introduced his own theory of seafloor spreading.

Seafloor spreading theory was presented by. According to this theory earth s crust is broken into roughly 20 sections called tectonic plates on which the continents ride. 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. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading.

When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. 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. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be. Seafloor spreading was proposed by an american geophysicist harry h.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. It was resurrected however with the study of seismology and further exploration of the ocean floors in the 1950s and 1960s that showed mid ocean ridges evidence in the seafloor of the earth s changing magnetic field and proof of seafloor spreading and mantle convection leading to the theory of plate tectonics. His theory followed that magma from the mantle could ooze up at mid oceanic rides and cool thereby expanding and pushing the plates on either side of the ridge away from it.

The theory of seafloor spreading the mid ocean ridge is where the seafloor spreading occurs in which tectonic plates large slabs of earth s lithosphere split apart from each other. Together these observations were consistent with a new theory proposed by researchers who built on wegener s original idea of continental drift the theory of plate tectonics. Proposed that molten material comes through the crack in mid ocean ridges which causes the seafloor to spread until some of it sinks into the mantle of the earth at trenches. 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.

Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Like the scientists before us we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics.