How do you explain sea floor spreading?
Sea-floor spreading is what happens at the mid-oceanic ridge where a divergent boundary is causing two plates to move away from one another resulting in spreading of the sea floor. As the plates move apart, new material wells up and cools onto the edge of the plates.
What are the three types of sea floor spreading?
There are three types of plate-plate interactions based upon relative motion: convergent, where plates collide, divergent, where plates separate, and transform motion, where plates simply slide past each other.
Why is it called sea floor spreading?
The Mid-Atlantic ridge is an ocean ridge found along the Atlantic Ocean floor. The ridge, he thought, was where new seafloor was being added to the earth’s lithosphere, which in turn pushed the continents apart. Hess called it seafloor spreading.
At which boundary is sea floor created?
Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries, where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart. As the plates separate, molten rock rises to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt.
What are two pieces of evidence for seafloor spreading?
Several types of evidence supported Hess’s theory of sea-floor spreading: eruptions of molten material, magnetic stripes in the rock of the ocean floor, and the ages of the rocks themselves.
What color is the ocean floor?
blue
Most of the light that is reflected by clear, open ocean water is blue, while the red portion of sunlight is quickly absorbed near the surface. Therefore, very deep water with no reflections off the sea floor appears dark navy blue.
What is sea floor spreading and why is it a key to understanding the theory of plate tectonics?
Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from the mantle’s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor.
Which of the above boundaries is sea floor destroyed?
Convergent margins are where two plates come together and it’s where crust and sea floor can be destroyed through subduction. Subduction zones and trenches are other terms for convergent margins.