The Process That Causes The Drifting Of The Ocean Floor

Tuzo wilson predicted three types of boundaries between plates.

The process that causes the drifting of the ocean floor.

As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates vary from about 0 1 cm 0 04 inch per year to 17 cm 6 7 inches per year. In the process of seafloor spreading molten rock rises from within the earth and adds new seafloor oceanic crust to the edges of the old. As plates converge one plate may move under the other causing earthquakes forming volcanoes or creating deep ocean trenches.

As the seafloor grows wider the continents on opposite sides of the ridge move away from each other. The shifting plates may collide converge move away diverge or slide past transform each other. Ocean basins get narrower as a result of seafloor spreading. Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push.

Hydrothermal vents are common at spreading centers. At a spreading center basaltic magma rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new seabed. Ocean floor is created by the process of subduction. Samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process.

Mid ocean ridges where ocean crust is created trenches where the ocean plates are subducted and large fractures in the seafloor called transform faults where the plates slip by each other. The ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle in a process known as subduction the formation of volcanoes and mountain ranges can be explained by the theory of. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. Many ocean floor features are a result of the interactions that occur at the edges of these plates.

Convection currents in the molten mantle cause the plates to slowly move about the earth a few centimeters each year. Seafloor spreading brings them together. To keep the earth s surface area constant the amount of seafloor spreading must equal the amount of subduction. Convection cells in the are responsible for the movement of tectonics plates.

The process by which new ocean floor is created and causes the continents to drift. Subduction causes continents to move apart. Seafloor spreading is most dynamic along giant underwater mountain ranges known as mid ocean ridge s.