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Seafloor Spreading

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Objectives:
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• Describe the Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis

• Illustrate and explain the processes involved

in the Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis

• Enumerate and describe the three types of

boundaries between plates
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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
to edit Master title styleHypothesis

• Harry Hess, a petrologist

at Princeton University

• Robert Dietz,
oceanographer at US
Coast and Geodetic
Survey

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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
to edit Master title styleHypothesis

• Geologic process
where tectonic plates
split up and oceanic
plates move away
from each other
• A result of mantle
convection

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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
to edit Master title styleHypothesis

• 3 Types of Boundaries
between plates:

• Mid-ocean ridges

• Trenches

• Transform faults
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 Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis
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• Convection current carry the

heat to the lithosphere

• As the plate moves during plate

tectonics, heat makes the crust
more less dense

• Less dense material forms as

mountains or elevated areas in
the seafloor

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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
to edit Master title styleHypothesis

• Occurs in mid-oceanic
ridges
• Continuous process
of igneous rock
formation at mid-
oceanic ridges
• Magma is repeatedly
injected to form the
new seafloor
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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
to edit Master title styleHypothesis

• Older seafloors are

found farther away
from mid-ocean
ridges
• Seafloor elevation
progressively lowers
away from mid-ocean
ridges

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 Seafloor
Click Spreading
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• This continuous
process makes the
seafloor spread
• Can result in an ever-
widening seafloor
• Only ends when mid-
ocean ridges are
subducted
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