Sea Floor Spreading Evidence Of Continental Drift

The theory maintains that the crust and uppermost mantle or lithosphere is segmented into a number of solid rigid slabs called lithospheric plates.

Sea floor spreading evidence of continental drift.

Once we got data from the sea floor it beca. 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. Besides the continents had to be the key parts because we live on them so they re important. Wherever continents are bordered by deep sea trench systems as in the pacific ocean the ocean floor is plunged downward underthrusting the continents and ultimately reentering and dissolving in earth s mantle from which it had originated.

For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Due to this continuous seafloor spreading occurs and makes atlantic ocean floor to be connected to other continental crust making the ocean gets wider over the time. Tuzo wilson combined the continental drift and seafloor spreading hypotheses to propose the theory of plate tectonics. As molten rock rises from the earth it forms new crust between the plates.

He suggested that continents moved around the earth like giant rafts. Scientists agree that continents rest on rocks called tectonic plates which shift and move. Alfred wegener a german meteorologist born in 1880 developed the idea of continental drift. Another indication of continental drift is tectonic activity and seafloor spreading.

Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. He put together the evidence of ancient glaciations and the distribution of fossil to formulate a theory that the continents have moved over the. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically. Sea floor spreading further supports the continental drift theory.

Seafloor spreading helps to explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. Tuzo said that earth s crust or lithosphere was divided into large rigid pieces called plates. Seafloor spreading disproves an early part of the theory of continental drift. Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity.

When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. Supporters of continental drift originally theorized that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans. Continental drift was the term applied when there was no firm information about processes on the sea floor. Plate tectonics theory convection currents and sea floor spreading.

See also continental drift a veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis.