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Seafloor Spreading

The document outlines objectives for a lesson on continental drift theory and seafloor spreading. It discusses how coal deposits in Antarctica provided evidence that the continent once had a tropical climate and was closer to the equator, supporting early continental drift ideas. It then summarizes how improved ocean mapping revealed mid-ocean ridges and magnetic reversal patterns in seabeds, providing strong evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics.

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171 views33 pages

Seafloor Spreading

The document outlines objectives for a lesson on continental drift theory and seafloor spreading. It discusses how coal deposits in Antarctica provided evidence that the continent once had a tropical climate and was closer to the equator, supporting early continental drift ideas. It then summarizes how improved ocean mapping revealed mid-ocean ridges and magnetic reversal patterns in seabeds, providing strong evidence for seafloor spreading and plate tectonics.

Uploaded by

Soulnimex
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Objectives


At the end of the lesson, students are expected to:
1. Discover what is Continental Drift Theory;
2. Explain how convection current happen;
3. Enumerate the evidences of the Seafloor
Spreading Theory and explains how they support
plate movement;
4. Make a seafloor spreading model; and
5. Simulate the seafloor spreading.
COAL DEPOSITS

COAL BEDS

Were formed from the compaction
and decomposition of swamp plants
that lived million years ago(These
were discovered in South America,
Africa, Indian Subcontinent,
Southeast Asia, and even Antarctica.

How is a coal bed
formation possible
in Antarctica?
We all know that the current location of
Antarctica could not sustain substantial
amount of life. If there is a substantial

quantity of coal in it, thus, it only means
that Antarctica must have been positioned
in a part of the Earth where it once
supported large quantities of life.
This leads to the idea that Antarctica
once experienced a tropical climate, thus,
it might have been closer before to the
equator.
Since, Alfred Wegener was
not able to provide
 enough
evidences to prove that
continents were once joined
together as a big landmass,
his Continental Drift Theory
was rejected until the 1960s.
This made scientists

conduct further
studies in search for
the answer.
During 1950s and 1960s

New techniques and
modern gadgets enabled
scientists to make better
observations and gather
information about the ocean
floor.
Sonars and
Submersibles

With the help of these modern
gadgets, scientists had a clearer
view of the ocean floors;
With these gadgets, scientists
have discovered underwater
features deep within the ocean.

Scientists found:

A system of ridges or mountains
in the seafloor similar to those
found in the continents.
These are called, mid-ocean ridges.
Ex. The famous Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Mid-Atlantic Ridge

An undersea mountain chain in
the Atlantic Ocean
Has a gigantic cleft about 32-48 km
long and 1.6 km deep
Is offset by fracture zones or rift
valleys
Robert Dietz

Harry Hess

Harry Hess together w/Robert Dietz

Suggested an
explanation to the
Continental Drift;
Proposed the Seafloor
Spreading Theory in
Harry Hess

An American
Geologist/Geophysicist and a
Navy Submarine Commander
during the World War II and
part of his mission had been to
study the deepest parts of the
ocean floor.
HARRY HESS

discovered in 1946 that hundreds
of flat-topped mountains, perhaps
sunken islands shape the Pacific
floor
proposed in 1960 that the
movement of the continents was a
result of seafloor spreading
HARRY HESS

said that it was possible that molten
magma from beneath the Earth’s crust
could ooze up between the plates in the
Great Global Rift and as this molten
magma cooled in the ocean water, it
would expand and push the plates on
either side of it North and South
America to the west and Europe and
Asia to the east
This way, the Atlantic
Ocean would get wider
but the coastlines of the
landmasses would not
change dramatically.
HARRY HESS

proved Wegener’s basic idea
right and clarified the
mechanism that broke the
once-joined continents into
the seven with which are
familiar

What is seafloor
spreading or how
does it happen?
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

As the seafloor spreads apart at a mid-ocean
ridge, new seafloor is created/magma flows
out of the crack, cools down and becomes the
new seafloor.
The older seafloor moves away from the
ridge in opposite directions.
 This helped explain how the crust could
move--- something that the continental drift
hypothesis could not do.
Seafloor Spreading

Explains how continents move.
Continents (which are attached
to the lithosphere) move as new
seafloor crust is created and
spreads out and away from the
mid-ocean ridge.

The rate of formation of a new seafloor
is not always as fast as the destruction

of the old seafloor at the subduction
zone. This explains why the Pacific
Ocean is getting smaller and why the
Atlantic Ocean is getting wider. If
subduction is faster than seafloor
spreading, the ocean shrinks. When the
seafloor spreading is greater than the
subduction, then the ocean gets wider.
Magnetic Reversal

Magnetic reversal is also called magnetic


flip of the earth. It happens when the
magnetic north pole (south end) is being
aligned with the geographic south and
magnetic south being aligned with the
geographic north.
How does it happen?

Magnetic reversal happens
when the flow in the outer
core changes causing the
Earth’s magnetic field to
change its direction.

786 000 years ago, it flipped
and has remained constant.
The length of time between
magnetic reversal is
200 000-1 000 000 years.
How does magnetic reversal
prove seafloor spreading?

When lava solidifies, iron
bearing minerals crytallize.
As these crystallize, the
minerals behave like tiny
compasses and align with the
earth’s magnetic field.

So when magnetic reversal


occurs, there is also a
change in the polarity of
rocks.
The change in
the polarity of
rocks allowed 
scientists to
visualize the
magnetic
stripes in the
ocean floor.

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