What is the main cause of seafloor spreading?
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.
What causes continental drift?
The causes of continental drift are perfectly explained by the plate tectonic theory. The earth’s outer shell is composed of plates that move a little bit every year. Heat coming from the interior of the earth triggers this movement to occur through convection currents inside the mantle.
What causes seafloor spreading quizlet?
Terms in this set (10) During sea-floor spreading, magma erupts along a mid-ocean ridge to form new oceanic lithosphere. The floor then moves away from the ridge, often toward a trench at the edge of the ocean basin. The pattern shows that ocean floor forms along mid-ocean ridges and then moves away from the ridge.
What makes the plates continents move and why does it continuously drifting apart?
Wegener suggested that perhaps the rotation of the Earth caused the continents to shift towards and apart from each other. In the process of seafloor spreading, molten rock rises from within the Earth and adds new seafloor (oceanic crust) to the edges of the old.
Why did Pangaea break up?
During the Triassic Period, the immense Pangea landmass began breaking apart as a result of continental rifting. A rift zone running the width of the supercontinent began to open up an ocean that would eventually separate the landmass into two enormous continents.
Can Pangea happen again?
The answer is yes. Pangea wasn’t the first supercontinent to form during Earth’s 4.5-billion-year geologic history, and it won’t be the last. So, there’s no reason to think that another supercontinent won’t form in the future, Mitchell said.
Can continents shift back together?
Answer 1: Yes it is possible. The plates of the earths plate tectonic system are in relative motion that ultimately depends on circulation of platic rock in the deep earth. There is no reason why the crust that forms the continents could not again come together.