Sea Floor Spreading National Geographic

April 21 2011 scientists use cameras and sonar near the u s.

Sea floor spreading national geographic.

As buoyant molten rock rises up from deep within earth it emerges from the space between spreading tectonic plates and hardens creating a ridge. Plate tectonics also explains the stripes of rock on the seafloor with alternating magnetic properties. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. National geographic society jeanna sullivan national.

This records that there is a constant movement and spreading of rocks on the ocean floor. Supporters of continental drift originally theorized that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans. Keeping earth in shape seafloor spreading is just one part of plate. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

Virgin islands to see the seafloor and find out how fish and other sea life use the underwa. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet. The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american. Seafloor spreading disproves an early part of the theory of continental drift.

Britannica national geographic photo by.