Evidence That The Ocean Floor Is Spreading

The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.

Evidence that the ocean floor is spreading.

See also continental drift a veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis. It is suggested that the entire history of the ocean basins in terms of oceanfloor spreading is contained frozen in the oceanic crust. Evidence for sea floor spreading. Eruptions of molten material magnetic stripes in the rock of the ocean floor and the ages of the rocks themselves.

For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. His theory of sea floor spreading maintained that new basaltic oceanic crust forms at a midoceanic ridge and is slowly pushed away on both sides toward the continents as more new crust is produced. Measurements indicate that new crust moves away from a ridge at.

Variations in the intensity and polarity of earth s magnetic field are considered to be recorded in the remanent magnetism of the igneous rocks as they solidified and cooled through the curie temperature at the crest of an oceanic ridge and subsequently. Several types of evidence supported hess s theory of sea floor spreading. This evidence led scientists to look again at wegener s hypothesis of continental drift. In the 1960s geologist harry hess proposed that the sea floor was moving outward from the midoceanic ridges.