SPREADING OF THE OCEAN FLOOR, NEW EVIDENCE

NIAZ HUSSAIN M.Sc INTEGRATED PETROLEUM GEO-SCIENCE

HES HYPOTHESIS
HYPOTHESIS FOR INTERPRETATION AND INVESTIGATION OF SEA FLOOR

SLOW CONVECTION WITHIN UPPER MANTLE

CONTINENTAL FRAGMENTS RIDGING PASSIVELY AWAY FROMA RIFT MOVEMENTS OF ORDER OF FEW CENTIMETERS PER ANUM SURFACE EXPRESSION OF UPPER MANTLE HESS AND DEITZ MODEL ACCOUNTS FOR MANY FEATURES PRESENT ON OCEAN FLOOR

DELINEATION OF NORTH-SOUTH TOPOGRAPHIC SCARS ON FLOOR OF INDIAN OCEAN BY HEZEN AND THARP.
DRIFT AND OCEAN FLOOR SPREADING IN SOUTH ATLANTIC AND EAST PACIFIC RECORDED IN FORM OF FRACTURE ZONES AND ASEISMIC VOLCANIC RIDGES BY WILSON OCEAN FLOOR HOSTORY COULD BE RECORDED IN TERMS OF REMANENT MAGNETIZATION OF OCEANIC CRUST VINE AND MATHEWS SUGGESTED VARIATION IN INTENSITY AND POLARITY OF EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD MAY BE FOSSILIZED IN OCEANIC CRUST MANIFESTED IN TERMS OF SHORT WAVELENGTH VARIATIONS OR ANOMALIES.

CONVEYOR BELT ACTS AS A TAPE RECORDER AT CURIE TEMPERATURE RIDGE OF OCEANIC CRUST WILL ASSUME THE DIRECTION EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD.

SPREADING RATE OF FEW cm PER ANUM AND DURATION OF 7000,000 YEARS FOR PRESENT DAY PLLARITY IMPLY THAT THE CENTRAL BLOCK OF CRUST, A FEW KILOMETERS IN WIDTH IN WHICH MAGNETIZATION IS UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED
ADJASCENT BLOCKS WILL BE OF REVERSED POLARITY. WIDTHS AND POLARITY OF BLOCKS SUCCESSIVELY DISTANT FROM CENTRRAL BLOCK WILL DEPEND ON REVERSAL TIME SCALE OF EARTHS FIELD IN THE PAST BULK MAGNETIZATION RESIDES IN 1 OR 2 KM OF BASSALTIC EXTRUSIVES AND INTRUSIVES COATING A LAYER OF SERPENTINITE

A MODEL IN WHICH MAGNETIZATION OF THE CENTRAL BLOCK IS TWICE TO THAT OF OTHERS. MODEL DERIVED FROM A SURVEY DONE ON CARLSBERG RIDGE IN NORTH WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 2 FEATURES OF OCEANIC MAGNETIC ANOMALIES EXPLAINED 1. CENTRAL ANOMALY ASSOCIATED WITH AXES OF RIDGES

2. STRIPPED PATTERNS OF ANOMALIES REVEALED BY SURVEYS OF EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD IN NORTH EASTERN PACIFIC

DIFFICULTIES
LITTLE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE CONCEPT.

POINTS THAT COULD NOT BE EXPLAINED

1). NORTH-EAST PACIFIC ANOMALIES DO NOT PARALLEL ANY EXISTING OR PRE-EXISTING OCEANIC RIDGES 2). VACQUIER MAINTAINED NO LINEAR ANOMALIES PARALLELING THE CENTRAL ANOMALY OVER CREST OF RIDGES 3). LOW AMPLITUDE SHORT WAVELENTH ANOMALIES OBSERVED ON AXIS OF EITHER SIDE OF RIDGE GIVE WAY TO HIGHER AMPLITUDE LONGER ANOMALIES OVER MORE DISTAL FLANKS. BY VINE AND MATHEWS

COROLLARIES
UNTIL RECENTLY NO LARGE SURVEY ON CREST OF MID OCEANIC RIDGE WAS AVAILABLE 1963 DETAILED AEROMAGNEITC SURVEY ON REYKJANES RIDGE, SOUTHWEST OF ICELAND. DIAGRAM SUMMARIZES ANOMALIES REVEALED BY THE SURVEY

PATTERNOF LINEAR ANOMALY PARALLELING CENTRAL ANOMALY AND SYMETRICALLY DISPOSED ABOUT IT.
JUAN DE FUCA AND GORDA RIDGES PROVIDE CONVINCING CONFIRMATION OF VINE-MATHEWS HYPOTHESIS i). LINEAR MAGNETIC ANOMALIES SHOULD BE PARALLEL OR SUB PARALLEL RIDGE CRESTS ii). ANOMALIES SHOULD BE SYMMETRIC ABOUT THE AXIS OF THE RIDGES.

 Total magnetic field anomalies south-west of Vancouver Island. Areas of positive anomaly shpwn in black. Straight lines show faults offsetting the anomaly pattern. (Raff and Mason; Courtesy of Geological Society of America)

Location of Reyjkanes Ridge, south west of Iceland. Magnetic anomalies observed over Reyjkanes ridge. Straight lines indicate axis of ridge and central positive anomaly ( J.R. Heirztler, 1966).

REYKJANES RIDGE
58 PARALLEL COURSES WERE RUN NORMAL TO THE RIDGE AXIS. RIDGE NOT TRAVERSED BY 1ST FOUR AND LAST 5 COURSES CROSSINGS 15, 25, 35 AND 45 WERE SHOWN AS REPRESENTATIVE CORRELATIO B/W OBSERVED AND COMPUTED ANOMALIES IS ENCOURAGING AND SUGGESTS SPREADING RATE LESS THAN 1 cm PER ANUM

ROCKALL BANK A CONTINENTAL FRAGMENT

Observed magnetic anomalies on mid oceanic ridge system compared with simulated profiles based on reversal time scale, at a constant rate of spreading. (Vine and Wilson)

THE REVERSAL TIME SCALE

JARAMILLO EVENT NOT PLOTED AND REVERSAL PLACED AT 1 MILLION YEARS AGO. NARROW PEAKS IN FIGURE 6 CORRELATED WITH OLDUVAI EVENT. CORRELATION IMPLIES ERRACTIC RATE OF SPREADING AT A MUCH SLOWER AVERAGE OF 1.5 cm PER ANUM CONSTANT RATE OF SPREADING MORE IMPORTANT TO INTERPRETATION OF MAGNETIC ANOMALIES CORRELATION OF CRUSTAL BOUNDARIES WITH NEW TIME SCALES SUGGESTS CONSTANT RATE OF SPREADING AND FASTER THAN BEFORE

Normal reverse boundaries within crust plotted against reversal time scale by Cox, Doell and Dalrympelle. (Vine and Wilson)

DEVIAIONS FROM LINEARITY OF JUAN DE FUCA AND EAST PACIFIC RISE ARE EXACTLY ANALAGOUS. DISCREPANCY ALONG SOUTH PACIFIC RISE, BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT EVENT IS MULTIPLE AND INCLUDES SHORT PERIOD OF NORMAL POLARITY. APPLICABILITY OF MODEL AND CONSTANT RATE OF SPREADING PRESENTS TWO INTERESTING POSSIBILITIES i). COMPAREABLE TO TIMESCALES OBTAINED BY OTHER TECHNIQUES ii). VINE-MATHEWS HYPOTHESIS APPLICABLE TO ALL ACTIVE OCEANIC RIDGES. USE THIS TIME SCALE TO PREDICT ANOMALIES AT OTHER LATITUDES

EARTHS PALEOFIELD
FAST RATE OF SPREADING IN PACIFIC SHOWS UP INCREDIBLE DETAILS IN REVERSAL TIME SCALE OUT TO PREHAPS 11 MILLION YEARS AGO. IF ASSUMED RATE OF SPREADING ALWAYS HIGH, HYPOTHESIS CONTINUES TO APPLY CHANGES IN INTENSITY AND POLARITY DURING REMAINDER OF TERTIARY SHOULD BE RECORDED IN OCEANIC CRUST AND MAGNETIC ANOMALIES OUT TO THE BOUNDARY OF EAST PACIFIC RISE

CONCEPT OF TRANSOFRM FAULTS EXPLAINS MANY OCEANIC FRACTURE ZONES ESPECIALLY IN ATLANTIC AND INDIAN OCEANS.

CONCLUSIONS
ENTIRE EARTH HISTORY CONTAINED IN EARTH CRUST INTENSITY AND POLARITY OF EARTHS MAGNETIC FIELD RECORDED IN REMANENT MAGNETISM OF IGNEOUS ROCKS HYPOTHESIS SUPPORTED BY LINNEARITY AND CONTINUITY OF OCEANIC MAGNETIC ANOMALIES AND THEIR SYMMETRY ABOUT THE AXIS OF THE RIDGES REVERSAL TIME SCALE FOR LAST 4 MILLION YEARS COMBINED WITH MODEL, COMPUTED ANOMALY SHOW GOOD AGREEMENT WITH RATES OF SPREADING FOR ACTIVE PARTS OF MID OCEANIC RIDGES OCEANIC MAGNETIC ANOMALIES ALSO INDICATE A CHANGE IN DIRECTION OF CRUSTAL SPREADING IN REGION DURING PLIOCENE TIME. WITHIN FRAMEWORK OF OCEAN FLOOR SPREADING MAGNETIC ANOMALIES INDICATE NATURE OF FFRACTURE ZONES THAT ARE PART OF ACTIVE OCEANIC RIDGES

REFERENCES
SPREADING OF OCEAN FLOOR NEW EVIDENCE, 16 DECEMBER 1966, VOLUME 154, NUMBER 3755 E. C. Bullard, Quart. J. Geol. Soc. London 120, 1 (1964). 2. H. H. Hess, in Petrologic Studies, A. E. J. Engel et al., Eds. (Geol. Soc. Amer., New York, 1962), p. 599; perhaps first and in-dependently suggested by A. Holmes, Trans. Geol. Soc. Glasgow 18, 599 (1928). 3. H. H. Hess, in Submarine Geology and Geophysics (vol. 17, Colston papers), W. F. Whittard and R. Bradshaw, Eds. (Butter-worths, London, 1965), p. 317; R. S. Dietz, Amer. J. Sci. 264, 177 (1966). 4. B. C. Heezen and M. Tharp, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A. 258, 90 (1965); 259, 137 (1966). 5. J. T. Wilson, Nature 207, 907 (1965). 6. F. J. Vine and D. H. Matthews, ibid. 199, 947 (1963). 7. A. Cox, R. R. Doell, G. B. Dalrymple, Science 144, 1537 (1964); R. R. Doell and G. B. Dalrymple, ibid. 152, 1060 (1966). 8. F. J. Vine and J. T. Wilson, ibid. 150, 485 (1965). 9. B. D. Loncarevic, C. S. Mason, D. H. Mat-thews, Can. J. Earth Sci. 3, 327 (1966). 10. J. R. Cann and F. J. Vine, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A 259, 198 (1966). 11. M. Ewing, J. Hirshman, B. C. Heezen, in International Oceanographic Congress Pre-prints, M. Sears, Ed. (AAAS, 1959), p. 24. 12. V. Vacquier, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London Ser. A 258, 77 (1965). 13. J. M. Ade-Hall, Geophys. J. 9, 85 (1964). 14. G. Peter and H. B. Stewart, Nature 206, 1017 (1965). 15. J. R. Heirtzler and X. Le Pichon, J. Geo-phys. Res. 70, 4013 (1965). 16. At the suggestion of Lamont Geological Observatory. 17. J. R. Heirtzler, X. Le Pichon, J. G. Baron, Deep-Sea Res. 13, 427 (1966). 18. 0. E. Avery, TR 161 (U.S. Navy Oceano-graphic