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2 Seafloor

The document summarizes evidence for the theory of seafloor spreading from observations of the ocean floor. It describes key features like mid-ocean ridges, where new crust is formed, and ocean trenches, where crust sinks back into the mantle. It also explains how mapping magnetic anomalies on the seafloor provided evidence that the ocean crust spreads out from the mid-ocean ridges in symmetrical patterns that match the reversals of Earth's magnetic field over time. This led scientists like Harry Hess to propose the hypothesis of seafloor spreading to explain plate tectonics.

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33 views16 pages

2 Seafloor

The document summarizes evidence for the theory of seafloor spreading from observations of the ocean floor. It describes key features like mid-ocean ridges, where new crust is formed, and ocean trenches, where crust sinks back into the mantle. It also explains how mapping magnetic anomalies on the seafloor provided evidence that the ocean crust spreads out from the mid-ocean ridges in symmetrical patterns that match the reversals of Earth's magnetic field over time. This led scientists like Harry Hess to propose the hypothesis of seafloor spreading to explain plate tectonics.

Uploaded by

johnkirbyfamorcan928
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Seafloor Spreading

1
Evidence from the Seafloor
The seafloor reveals valuable clues about processes such as
plate tectonics.
We are familiar with the wide diversity of landforms and geologic
processes on the continents - but there is an equal diversity in the
ocean basins.

The oceans
contain volcanoes,
mountain chains,
valleys, plateaus,
etc.
Seafloor Topography
Continental shelf
Narrow, shallow
ocean surrounding
continents

Abyssal plain
Relatively level
seafloor, often with
volcanoes

Lost City
Seafloor Topography
Oceanic ridge
•Submarine mountain range that is a source of volcanic activity.
•Topographic feature winding through the ocean basins like the seams on a
baseball — 70,000 km long.
•Often found toward center of ocean basins

Oceanic trench
•Narrow, deepest
portion of ocean floor
(Puerto Rico trench)
•Found adjacent to
some continents or
island chains and
along the margins of
oceans
•Most common around
Pacific Ocean

Lost City
Seafloor Topography
Dotting the deep-ocean floor are
isolated volcanic peaks called
seamounts. They are most common
in the Pacific Ocean.
Where they poke above sea level,
they are islands — Hawaii, Azores,
etc.
They may gradually sink and erode
below sea level.

Guyots — submerged, flat-


topped seamounts.
Coral atolls are sinking volcanic
island flanked by coral reefs.
Harry Hess was a geologist that was a
captain in the Navy during WWII. His ship
was equipped with sonar and he was able
to study the seafloor.

He was able to
map portions of the
seafloor and his
observations led
him to propose a
new hypothesis
known as Seafloor
NASA Spreading.
Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis
Oceanic ridges
• Magma rises from mantle, forms new oceanic crust
• Expansion of seafloor results in high elevations
• Seafloor moves away from ridge (conveyer belt) creating a gap
for new material

USGS
Tanya Atwater, UCSB
Seafloor Spreading Hypothesis
Oceanic trench
• Older seafloor descends into mantle at an active margin
• Melting of rocks in the mantle forms magma resulting in
volcanism
• Earthquakes common where old seafloor is subducted

USGS
Tanya Atwater, UCSB
Other evidence that led
Hess and others to propose
seafloor spreading was
based upon magnetic
surveys of the seafloor.
Magnetic data showed that
the seafloor had different
magnetic zones. Some
areas were magnetized
consistent with the Earth’s
current magnetic field but
other areas were anomalous
and seemed to have a
magnetization that was the
opposite of the Earth’s USGS

magnetic field.
These “magnetic stripes” appeared to be parallel to the ridge axis.
Think of the Earth’s
magnetic field as being
a giant bar magnet -
today the Earth’s
magnetic north pole is
nearly coincident with
its geographic
(rotational) north pole.
What we have found is
that the Earth’s
magnetic field has
reversed itself many
times in the past - the NASA

magnetic south pole


aligns itself with the
geographic north pole.
Each period of
normal or reversed
polarity averages
250,000 years
Longest = 10’s of
millions of years
Shortest = 10’s of
thousands of years
Few thousand
years to change Wikimedia: Chmee2

polarity (normal 
reverse or reverse
 normal)??
Tanya Atwater, UCSB
Magnetic Stripe Activity

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