What happens at Mid Ocean Ridge during seafloor 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 happens as newly formed oceanic crust moves away from the mid ocean ridge?
The older oceanic crust moves away from the mid-ocean ridge. When lava erupts along a mid – ocean ridge ; it cools, and crystallizes. This permanently records the direction and orientation of Earth’s magnetic field at the time of the eruption. Explain how rocks on the seafloor records magnetic reversals over time.
What evidence supports the theory of ocean floor?
Abundant evidence supports the major contentions of the seafloor-spreading theory. First, samples of the deep ocean floor show that basaltic oceanic crust and overlying sediment become progressively younger as the mid-ocean ridge is approached, and the sediment cover is thinner near the ridge.
What does the ocean floor look like at Mid Ocean Ridge?
A composite map showing the topography (relief) of the ocean floor clearly reveals the mid-ocean ridge system, which appears here as dark “seams” extending through the oceans. Pacific Rise have smoother topography at the ridge crest, and look somewhat like domes. They have relief of 100 to 200 meters (328 to 656 feet).
Why does the mid-ocean ridge have a zigzag appearance?
The reason the mid-ocean ridge has a zigzag appearance is because: it accommodates spreading of a linear ridge system on a spherical Earth. Turbidity currents are highly erosive and are thought to be responsible for the creation of deep-sea trenches.
Do mid-ocean ridges move?
Scientists determined that the same process formed the perfectly symmetrical stripes on both side of a mid-ocean ridge. The continual process of seafloor spreading separated the stripes in an orderly pattern. Oceanic crust slowly moves away from mid-ocean ridges and sites of seafloor spreading.
Where can you find evidence of a mid-ocean ridge on dry land?
Iceland
How were mid-ocean ridges discovered?
It is now called the Mid-Ocean Ridge. In 1953, American physicists Maurice Ewing (1906-1974) and Bruce Heezen (1924-1977) discovered that through this underwater mountain range ran a deep canyon. Ewing and Heezen’s finding marked an explosion in data from newly advanced technology that revolutionized geology.
Why is the mid-ocean ridge important?
Mid-ocean ridges are geologically important because they occur along the kind of plate boundary where new ocean floor is created as the plates spread apart. Thus the mid-ocean ridge is also known as a “spreading center” or a “divergent plate boundary.” The plates spread apart at rates of 1 cm to 20 cm per year.