3 Compare Sea Floor Spreading With The Formation Of Mid Ocean Ridges

The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current.

3 compare sea floor spreading with the formation of mid ocean ridges.

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. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. Introduction 2 ocean core complexes are massifs in which lower crustal and upper mantle rocks are exposed at the seafloor blackman et al.

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. Compare sea floor spreading with the formation of mid ocean ridges sea floor spreading is the process where two ocean plates move apart from each other. The mid atlantic ridge runs down the center of the atlantic ocean slowly spreading at a rate of 2 to 5 centimeters 0 8 to 2 inches per year and forming a rift valley that is about the depth and width of the grand canyon. The mid ocean ridge is an area that is mountainess and the spreading is slower in the atlantic but in the pacific the mid ocean ridge is much smooth it more like hills.

Hydrothermal vents at spreading centers introduce various amounts of iron sulfur manganese silicon and other elements into the ocean some of which are recycled into the ocean crust. The process of sea floor spreading. Yes mid ocean ridges an sea floor spreading are linked. Two well studied mid ocean ridges within the global system are the mid atlantic ridge and the east pacific rise.

Helium 3 an isotope that accompanies volcanism from the mantle is emitted by hydrothermal vents and can be detected in plumes. As a practical part of this assignment i decided to make stop motion movies to help visualize. 1998 they form at slow and intermediate spreading mid ocean ridges through slip on detachment faults that initiated close to the spreading axis blackman et al. Seafloor spreading on mid ocean ridges is a global scale ion exchange system.

The spading of the ocean ridges are caused by the plate boundaries moving apart form each other in different directions. The east pacific rise is a mid oceanic ridge a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along the floor of the pacific ocean it separates the pacific plate to the west from north to south the north american plate the rivera plate the cocos plate the nazca plate and the antarctic plate it runs south from the gulf of california in the salton sea basin in southern california to a point. I ve uploaded a series of four videos i made for my graduation assignment about plate tectonics.