Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.
Seafloor spreading demonstration.
Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.
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 theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.
Students learn about seafloor spreading in class doing a paper strip model of divergent and convergent plate boundaries.
The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate.
Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.