Sea Floor Spreading

ea Floor Spreading
A map of the ocean floor shows a variety of topographic features: flat plains, long mountain chains,
and deep trenches. Mid-ocean ridges are part of chain of mountains some 84,000 km long. The
Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the longest mountain chain on Earth. These ridges are spreading centers
or divergent plate boundaries where the upwelling of magma from the mantle creates new ocean
floor.
Deep-sea trenches are long, narrow basins which extend 8-11 km below sea level. Trenches
develop adjacent to subduction zones, where oceanic lithosphere slides back into the mantle.

Hypothesis
Sea-floor spreading — In the early 1960s, Princeton geologist Harry Hess proposed the hypothesis
of sea-floor spreading, in which basaltic magma from the mantle rises to create new ocean floor at
mid-ocean ridges. On each side of the ridge, sea floor moves from the ridge towards the deep-sea
trenches, where it is subducted and recycled back into the mantle.
A test of the hypothesis of sea-floor spreading was provided by studies of the Earth’s magnetism.
Evidences
Age of the sea floor:

o
 The age of the sea-floor also supports sea-floor spreading.
 If sea-floor spreading operates, the youngest oceanic crust
should be found at the ridges and progressively older crust
should be found in moving away from the ridges towards the
continents. This is the case.
 The oldest known ocean floor is dated at about 200 million
years, indicating that older ocean floor has been destroyed
through subduction at deep-sea trenches.
Magnetic anomalies:

o
 Magnetic surveys over the ocean floor in the 1960s revealed
symmetrical patterns of magnetic “bands,” (zebra
stripes)anomalies parallel to midoceanic rifts .
 The same patterns in relation to midoceanic rifts are present in
different oceans.
 The magnetic anomalies coincide with the episodes of
magnetic reversals that have been documented from studies
on land, indicating that the andesitic rocks that form new
oceanic crust in the tensional setting of the rift valley record
the earth’s magnetic field as they cool.
 A rock has a normal (positive) polarity when its
paleomagnetic field is the same as the earth’s field today.
 The positive magnetism adds to the earth’s magnetic field and
creates a higher magnetic measurement at that location.
 Rocks are negatively polarizedwhen the earth’s field is
reversed, which reduces the earth’s net field strength.
 Since the ages of these anomalies are known from dating
the paleomagnetic reversals on land, the rate of movement
of the ocean floor can be calculated.
 The fact that new ocean crust moves away from the
midoceanic ridge at speeds that range from 2 to 10
centimeters per year has also been documented using satellite
measurements and radar. For example, if it is known that a
segment of sea floor that formed 10.0 million years ago is
now 50 kilometers (5.0 million cm) away from the crest of
the ridge, it can be calculated that it traveled that distance
at about 2 centimeters per year.
 By using the calculated ages for episodes of paleomagnetic
reversal, scientists can construct sea floor age maps, which
confirm that the youngest oceanic crust is presently being
formed at midoceanic ridges and that the oldest is about 150 to
200 million years old, or late Jurassic in age.
 This older material is the farthest from the spreading centers
and is the next crust to be subducted.
 Sea floor age maps have been proven correct by the age dates
calculated from hundreds of rock samples gathered from the
ocean floor.
Seismic studies:

o
 More proof for sea floor spreading comes from seismic studies
indicating that earthquakes occur along the rift valley of a
midoceanic ridge and the cross‐cutting fractures that offset it.
 Rift valley earthquakes occur only along transform faults, those
portions of the fracture zone located between the offset
sections of a ridge and rift valley.
 Because of the way in which the sea floor spreads (that is,
away from both sides of a midoceanic ridge), transform faults
are the only areas along the fracture zone in which sections of
the oceanic crust pass one another in opposite directions.
 The concentration of earthquakes in the transform‐fault
sections of the fracture zones further supports the concept of
ocean crust moving away from a midoceanic ridge.
Modern plate tectonic theory:

o
 By the 1960s, the theories of continental drift and sea floor
spreading were supported by reliable scientific data and
combined to develop modern‐day plate tectonic theory.
 The theory maintains that the crust and uppermost mantle, or
lithosphere, is segmented into a number of solid, rigid slabs
called lithospheric plates.
 These slabs move slowly over the asthenosphere, the 200‐
kilometer‐thick zone of more plastic mantle material that
underlies the plates.
 New oceanic crust is created at the crests of the midoceanic
ridges and pushed laterally away by new accumulations of
crust. It begins to cool as it moves away from the high heat
flows at the ridge.
 By the time it is subducted at the convergent boundary with
another plate, it is cold and dense enough that it begins to sink
back into the mantle.
 Subduction is also probably a function of a down‐turning
mantle convection current below the converging plate

Sea Floor Spreading

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