Magnetic Striping - Student Worksheet

Magnetic materials in magma align themselves with the Earth’s magnetic poles whilst rock is
molten. When rock solidifies it “freezes” the magnets to register where the pole was at that
time. The magnetic poles have wandered round over geological time. They have even
completely reversed! You are going to copy what will happen as rock is spewed out from the
molten mantle at a mid-oceanic ridge. Then you can challenge a partner to reassemble the
ocean floor.

Equipment
 2 sheets of lined paper
 2 text books
 pencils or pens
 2 text books, stools or tables edge to edge
 1 bar magnet
 1 compass
 1 protractor
 scissors
 sticky tape

1. Take two sheets of lined paper. These represent volcanic rocks erupting through a
mid-oceanic ridge.
2. Place two text books side to side to represent crust and pull and separate the paper
between them as directed by your teacher.
3. Place the magnet near the compass and take the first reading of the orientation of
“North” Place this reading in the table below and draw arrows on both sides of your
erupting rock indicating this orientation.

After three readings, your papers should look like this.

Mid Ocean Ridge N

200
years
later

Created with generous support from

 Magnetic Striping - Student Worksheet
4. Move the magnet five times, each time repeating the steps above until you have five
readings on each piece of paper/ocean floor on either side of the mid oceanic ridge

Movement of magnet Magnetic (compass)

reading
First

Second

Third

Fourth

Fifth

5. Cut your papers into strips representing each of the five successive eruptions and
challenge another to reassemble the ocean floor across a mid ocean ridge using your
data table.

Created with generous support from