SEAFLOOR SPREADING

Harry Hess was a professor of geology at Princeton University (USA), and became interested in the
geology of the oceans while serving in the US Navy in World War II. His time as a Navy officer was an
opportunity to use sonar (also called echo sounding), then a new technology, to map the ocean floor
across the North Pacific.He published ‘The History of Ocean Basins' in 1962, in which he outlined a
theory that could explain how the continents could actually drift. This theory later became known as
‘sea Floor Spreading'.

Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth's lithosphere—
split apart from each other.Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity processes are the result of
mantle convection. Mantle convection is the slow, churning motion of Earth’s mantle. Convection
currents carry heat from the lower mantle and core to the lithosphere. Convection currents also
“recycle” lithospheric materials back to the mantle.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.Eventually, the crust cracks. Hot magma fueled by mantle
convection bubbles up to fill these fractures and spills onto the crust. This bubbled-up magma is cooled
by frigid seawater to form igneous rock. This rock (basalt) becomes a new part of Earth’s crust.

Mid-Ocean Ridges

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid-ocean ridges—large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.
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 plate, the
Cocos plate, the Nazca plate, and the Antarctic plate. The Southeast Indian Ridge marks where the
southern Indo-Australian plate forms a divergent boundary with the Antarctic plate.Seafloor spreading is
not consistent at all mid-ocean ridges. Slowly spreading ridges are the sites of tall, narrow underwater
cliffs and mountains. Rapidly spreading ridges have a much more gentle slopes.

Geomagnetic Reversals

The magnetism of mid-ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in
the early 20th century. Basalt, the once-molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust, is a fairly
magnetic substance, and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean
floor in the 1950s. What they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around mid-ocean
ridges was divided into matching “stripes” on either side of the ridge. The specific magnetism of basalt
rock is determined by the Earth’s magnetic field when the magma is cooling.
Scientists determined that the same process formed the perfectly symmetrical stripes on both side of a
mid-ocean ridge. The continual process of seafloor spreading separated the stripes in an orderly pattern.

Geographic Features

Oceanic crust slowly moves away from mid-ocean ridges and sites of seafloor spreading. As it moves, it
becomes cooler, more dense, and more thick. Eventually, older oceanic crust encounters a tectonic
boundary with continental crust.

In some cases, oceanic crust encounters an active plate margin. An active plate margin is an actual plate
boundary, where oceanic crust and continental crust crash into each other. Active plate margins are
often the site of earthquakes and volcanoes. Oceanic crust created by seafloor spreading in the East
Pacific Rise, for instance, may become part of the Ring of Fire, the horseshoe-shaped pattern of
volcanoes and earthquake zones around the Pacific ocean basin.

In other cases, oceanic crust encounters a passive plate margin. Passive margins are not plate
boundaries, but areas where a single tectonic plate transitions from oceanic lithosphere to continental
lithosphere. Passive margins are not sites of faults or subduction zones. Thick layers of sediment overlay
the transitional crust of a passive margin. The oceanic crust of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, for instance, will
either become part of the passive margin on the North American plate (on the east coast of North
America) or the Eurasian plate (on the west coast of Europe).

New geographic features can be created through seafloor spreading. The Red Sea, for example, was
created as the African plate and the Arabian plate tore away from each other. Today, only the Sinai
Peninsula connects the Middle East (Asia) with North Africa. Eventually, geologists predict, seafloor
spreading will completely separate the two continents—and join the Red and Mediterranean Seas.

Seafloor spreading disproves an early part of the theory of continental drift. Supporters of continental
drift originally theorized that the continents moved (drifted) through unmoving oceans. Seafloor
spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity.

Keeping Earth in Shape

Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. Subduction is another. Subduction happens where
tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. At subduction zones, the edge of the
denser plate subducts, or slides, beneath the less-dense one. The denser lithospheric material then
melts back into the Earth's mantle.

Seafloor spreading creates new crust. Subduction destroys old crust. The two forces roughly balance
each other, so the shape and diameter of the Earth remain constant.
The mid-ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic crust is created. The oceanic crust is composed of
rocks that move away from the ridge as new crust is being formed. The formation of the new crust is
due to the rising of the molten material (magma) from the mantle by convection current. When the
molten magma reaches the oceanic crust, it cools and pushes away the existing rocks from the ridge
equally in both directions.

A younger oceanic crust is then formed, causing the spread of the ocean floor. The new rock is dense but
not as dense as the old rock that moves away from the ridge. As the rock moves, further, it becomes
colder and denser until it reaches an ocean trench or continues spreading.

It is believed that the successive movement of the rocks from the ridge progressively increases the
ocean depth and have greater depths in the ocean trenches. Seafloor spreading leads to the renewal of
the ocean floor in every 200 million years, a period of time for building a mid-ocean ridge, moving away
across the ocean and subduction into a trench.

The Subduction Process

The highly dense oceanic crust that is formed after a progressive spreading is destined to two possible
occurrences. It can either be subducted into the ocean deep trench or continue to spread across the
ocean until it reaches a coast.

Subduction is the slanting and downward movement of the edge of a crustal plate into the mantle
beneath another plate. It occurs when an incredibly dense ocean crust meets a deep ocean trench. On
the other hand, if the ocean crusts continuous to move along the ocean and not found a trench, no
subduction will occur. It will continue to spread until a coast is found and literally pushing it away
towards its direction.

Two possible things could happen in the subduction of ocean crust. Once the subduction occurs, a
melting happens due to a tremendous friction. The ocean crust is then melted into magma. The magma
could either go back into the mantle for another convection currents leading again to another sea floor
spreading or it could burst through a crack in a continental crust and creates a volcano.

Subduction and sea-floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. 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.
On the other hand, the Pacific Ocean has more trenches that lead to more subduction of ocean crusts
rather than the formation of the mid-ocean ridge. The Pacific Ocean is believed to be continuing to
shrink.

Evidence of Sea Floor Spreading

Harry Hess’s hypothesis about seafloor spreading had collected several pieces of evidence to support
the theory. This evidence was from the investigations of the molten material, seafloor drilling,
radiometric age dating and fossil ages, and the magnetic stripes. This evidence however was also used to
support the Theory of Continental drift.

1. Molten material

Hess’s discovery on the warmer temperature near the mid-Atlantic ridge when he began the ocean
mapping, led to his evidence about the molten material underneath the ocean. The condition on the
mid-oceanic ridge was substantially different from other surfaces away from the region because of the
warmer temperature. He described that the molten magma from the mantle arose due to the
convection currents in the interior of the earth.

The convection current was due to the radioactive energy from the earth’s core that makes the
materials in the lower mantle to become warm, less dense and rise. The flow of the materials goes
through the upper mantle and leaks through the plates of the crust. This makes the temperature near
the mid-oceanic ridge becomes warm and the other surface to become cold because as the molten
magma continues to push upward, it moves the rocks away from the ridge.

2. Seafloor drill

The seafloor drilling system led to the evidence that supports the seafloor-spreading hypothesis.

The samples obtained from the seafloor drill reveals that the rocks away from the mid-oceanic ridge
were relatively older than the rocks near to it. The old rocks were also denser and thicker compared to
the thinner and less dense rocks in the mid-oceanic ridge.

This means that the magma that leaks from the ridge pushes the old rocks away and as they increasingly
become distant, they more likely become older, denser, and thicker. On the other hand, the newest,
thinnest crust is located near the center of the mid-ocean ridge, the actual site of seafloor spreading.

3. Radiometric age dating and fossil ages

By the use of radiometric age dating and studying fossil ages, it was also found out the rocks of the sea
floor age is younger than the continental rocks. It is believed that continental rocks formed 3 billion
years ago, however the sediments samples from the ocean floor are found to be not exceeding 200
million years old. It is a clear evidence that the formation of rocks in the sea floor is due to reabsorption
of materials.

4. Magnetic stripes
In the 20th century, the magnetic survey was conducted in the Mid-ocean ridge in order to investigate
evidence of sea-floor spreading. By using the magnetometer, the magnetic polarity will be shown
through a timescale that contains the normal and a reverse polarity. The minerals contained in the rocks
are oriented opposite to the magnetic field. The patterns of the magnetic field will then be compared to
the rocks to determine its approximate ages.

The investigation of the mid-ocean-ridge, using the magnetic stripes resulted in the three discoveries.
First, stripes of normal and reversed polarity were alternate across the bottom of the ocean.

Second, the alternate stripes of normal and reversed polarity formed a mirror image to the other side of
the ridge. The third is the abrupt ending of stripes when it reached the edge of the continent or an
ocean trench. It was concluded that the sea floor is composed of different rocks according to ages and
that they are positioned equally in opposite directions. This records that there is a constant movement
and spreading of rocks on the ocean floor.

https://www.eartheclipse.com/geology/theory-and-evidence-of-seafloor-spreading.html

PLATE TECTONICS

Plate tectonics is the most important concept in modern geology. This section will introduce you to the
concept of plate tectonics, how it works, why it is important and how it is shaping the world today.

Theory of Plate Tectonics

When the concept of seafloor spreading came along, scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to
explain how continents could move around Earth’s surface. Like the scientists before us, we will now
merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics.

Plate Boundaries

Plate boundaries are the edges where two plates meet. Most geologic activities, including volcanoes,
earthquakes, and mountain building, take place at plate boundaries. How can two plates move relative
to each other?
Divergent plate boundaries: the two plates move away from each other.

Convergent plate boundaries: the two plates move towards each other.

Transform plate boundaries: the two plates slip past each other.

The type of plate boundary and the type of crust found on each side of the boundary determines what
sort of geologic activity will be found there.

Convergent Plate Boundaries

When two plates converge, the result depends on the type of lithosphere the plates are made of. No
matter what, smashing two enormous slabs of lithosphere together results in magma generation and
earthquakes.

A transform plate boundary between the Pacific and North American plates creates the San Andreas
Fault, the world’s most notorious transform fault.

Just offshore, a divergent plate boundary, Juan de Fuca ridge, creates the Juan de Fuca plate.

A convergent plate boundary between the Juan de Fuca oceanic plate and the North American
continental plate creates the Cascades volcanoes.

Before Pangaea came together, the continents were separated by an ocean where the Atlantic is now.
To-Atlantic ocean shrank as the Pacific ocean grew. Currently, the Pacific is shrinking as the Atlantic is
growing. This supercontinent cycle is responsible for most of the geologic features that we see and
many more that are long gone.

Summary

Plates of lithosphere move because of convection currents in the mantle. One type of motion is
produced by seafloor spreading.

Plate boundaries can be located by outlining earthquake epicenters.

Plates interact at three types of plate boundaries: divergent, convergent and transform.

Most of the Earth’s geologic activity takes place at plate boundaries.

At a divergent boundary, volcanic activity produces a mid ocean ridge and small earthquakes.

At a convergent boundary with at least one oceanic plate, an ocean trench, a chain of volcanoes
develops and many earthquakes occur.
At a convergent boundary where both plates are continental, mountain ranges grow and earthquakes
are common.

At a transform boundary, there is a transform fault and massive earthquakes occur but there are no
volcanoes.

Processes acting over long periods of time create Earth’s geographic features.

Reference

https://www.eartheclipse.com/geology/theory-and-evidence-of-seafloor-spreading.html