SEAFLOOR 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.
The seafloor spreading hypothesis was proposed by the American
geophysicist Harry H. Hess in 1960. On the basis of Tharp’s efforts and
other new discoveries about the deep-ocean floor, Hess postulated that
molten material from Earth’s mantle continuously wells up along the crests
of the mid-ocean ridges that wind for nearly 80,000 km (50,000 miles)
through all the world’s oceans. As the magma cools, it is pushed away from
the flanks of the ridges. This spreading creates a successively younger ocean
floor, and the flow of material is thought to bring about the migration, or
drifting apart, of the continents. The continents bordering the Atlantic
Ocean, for example, are believed to be moving away from the Mid-Atlantic
Ridge at a rate of 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 inch) per year, thus increasing the breadth
of the ocean basin by twice that amount. 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.
EVIDENCE OF SEAFLOOR SPREADING
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.

Reported by:
Michael Jhun D. Lamigas
Grade 11-STEM