Sea Floor Spreading Prosses

The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american.

Sea floor spreading prosses.

The differences in spreading rates affect not only the geometries of the ridges but also the geochemistry of the basalts that are produced. The formation of the new crust is due to the rising of the molten material magma from the mantle by convection current. Since the new oceanic basins are shallower than the old oceanic basins the total capacity of the world s ocean basins decreases during times of active sea floor spreading. The process of sea floor spreading.

See also continental drift a veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis. 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. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

The mid ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process.