Sea Floor Spreading And Plate Tectonics

Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics.

Sea floor spreading and plate tectonics.

Theory of plate tectonics upsc ias. Like the scientists before us we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics. The continents are embedded in the thicker lithospheric plates carried along by the action of seafloor spreading. Theory of plate tectonics.

Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. When oceanic plates diverge tensional stress causes fractures to occur in the lithosphere. At subduction zones the edge of the denser plate subducts or slides beneath the less dense one. 2 confirmation of repeated reversals of the earth magnetic field in the geologic past.

It is not just the continents that are drifting. When the concept of seafloor spreading came along scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to explain how continents could move around earth s surface. 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. 3 emergence of the seafloor spreading hypothesis and associated recycling of oceanic.

According to the theory of plate tectonics the earth s lithosphere is broken into distinct plates which are. By 1968 on the basis of these details and a variety of other evidence the theory of plate tectonics as it had become. Plate tectonics it was from the continental drift theory convection current theory and the theory of seafloor spreading the theory of plate tectonics was formulated. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them.

Morgan later outlined the theory in 1968. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. The denser lithospheric material then melts back into the earth s mantle. In 1967 mckenzie and parker suggested the theory of plate tectonics.

The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically. Seafloor spreading helps to explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be. In particular four major scientific developments spurred the formulation of the plate tectonics theory.

1 demonstration of the ruggedness and youth of the ocean floor. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading.