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Continental Drift & Seafloor Spreading: Chapter 7: Plate Tectonics
Continental Drift & Seafloor Spreading: Chapter 7: Plate Tectonics
Seafloor Spreading
• The volcanic rocks which make up the sea floor have magnetism
because, as they cool, magnetic minerals within the rock align to the
Earth's magnetic field.
• Scientists noticed that some rocks were aligned to the “positive” or
north end of the Earth and some were aligned to the “negative” or
south end. Also, the ages of the rocks at the ridge were much
younger than those found at the subduction zones.
• A hypothesis was presented in 1963 by Fred Vine and Drummond
Matthews to explain this pattern. They proposed that lava erupted
at different times along the rift at the crest of the mid-ocean
ridges preserved different magnetic properties.
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