1 / 4

Seafloor Spreading

Seafloor Spreading. Chapter 17.2. Ocean Floor Discoveries - Through the use of modern technologies such as SONAR and magnetometers, scientists have been able to produce detailed maps of the ocean floor. - Scientists have discovered a underwater mountain range that encircles the Earth.

sereno
Download Presentation

Seafloor Spreading

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Seafloor Spreading Chapter 17.2

  2. Ocean Floor Discoveries - Through the use of modern technologies such as SONAR and magnetometers, scientists have been able to produce detailed maps of the ocean floor. - Scientists have discovered a underwater mountain range that encircles the Earth. - They call this mountain range the “Mid-ocean Ridge”. - They have also discovered deep-sea trenches many miles deep along the Pacific Ocean rim. - The rock closest to the mid-ocean ridges is younger than the rock further from the ridge. - Scientists also discovered identical patterns of magnetic polarity in the rocks moving out ward from the mid-ocean ridges. Video – Plate Tectonics: Further Evidence (2:11 min)

  3. Sea-floor Spreading - All of these discoveries have led scientists to propose the Theory of Sea-floor Spreading. - Rising magma in the center of the Atlantic Ocean is causing the sea-floor to push the continents apart, thus widening the Atlantic Ocean. - As the continents move apart in the Atlantic, they move closer together in the Pacific, causing the Pacific Ocean to narrow.

  4. Formation & Destruction of Oceanic Crust Old oceanic crust is destroyed at subduction zone. New oceanic crust forms at mid-ocean ridge. Trench forms at the boundary between two plates.

More Related