Where does sea floor spreading take place and why is it important?
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Where does sea floor spreading take place and why is it important?
Seafloor spreading or Seafloor spread is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge.
How does seafloor spreading affect the continents?
The creation and destruction of oceanic crust is the reason that continents move. Magma at the mid-ocean ridge creates new seafloor. As oceanic crust moves away from the ridge crest, it pushes a continent away from the ridge axis. If the oceanic crust reaches a deep sea trench, it sinks into the trench.
What is sea floor spreading?
Sea-floor spreading is what happens at the mid-oceanic ridge where a divergent boundary is causing two plates to move away from one another resulting in spreading of the sea floor. As the plates move apart, new material wells up and cools onto the edge of the plates.
How does New ocean floor form?
As plates converge, one plate may move under the other causing earthquakes, forming volcanoes, or creating deep ocean trenches. Where plates diverge from each other, molten magma flows upward between the plates, forming mid-ocean ridges, underwater volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and new ocean floor crust.
Where does subduction occur?
Subduction zones are where the cold oceanic lithosphere sinks back into the mantle and is recycled. They are found at convergent plate boundaries, where the oceanic lithosphere of one plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of another plate.
At which boundary is seafloor destroyed?
Convergent margins are where two plates come together and it’s where crust and sea floor can be destroyed through subduction. Subduction zones and trenches are other terms for convergent margins.
Where is sea floor destroyed?
subduction zones
You are correct that the seafloor is destroyed at subduction zones, but it is simultaneously being created at mid-ocean ridges. see figure 1 . Figure 1: Seafloor spreading at a mid-ocean ridge(where new crust is being created) and it’s destruction at a subduction zone. see figure 2 .
At which of the following sites does seafloor spreading result in ridges?
Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics.
Where is the mid-ocean ridge located?
the Atlantic Ocean
The mid ocean ridge systems are the largest geological features on the planet. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) is a mostly underwater mountain range in the Atlantic Ocean that runs from 87°N -about 333km south of the North Pole- to subantarctic Bourvet island at 54°S.
Where does subduction occur quizlet?
Where does subduction occur? This process occurs along convergent boundaries and areas called deep ocean trenches.
In what type of plate boundary does subduction occur?
convergent plate boundary
If two tectonic plates collide, they form a convergent plate boundary. Usually, one of the converging plates will move beneath the other, a process known as subduction.
What layer of the Earth is made up of tectonic plates?
lithosphere
Earth’s crust, called the lithosphere, consists of 15 to 20 moving tectonic plates. The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another.
What type of plate boundary is found at a mid-ocean ridge?
divergent plate boundaries
Mid-ocean ridges occur along divergent plate boundaries, where new ocean floor is created as the Earth’s tectonic plates spread apart. As the plates separate, molten rock rises to the seafloor, producing enormous volcanic eruptions of basalt.
What’s the definition of 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.
