Sea Floor Subduction

For earthquakes larger than a magnitude 7 5 this can cause a tsunami a giant sea wave by suddenly moving the seafloor.

Sea floor subduction.

Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. This report describes how to build a model of the outer 300 km 180 miles of the earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics including sea floor spreading the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor transform faulting thrust faulting subduction and volcanism. 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. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading.

For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. The denser lithospheric material then melts back into the earth s mantle. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be.

Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push. A descending plate is usually referred to as a slab where very old seafloor is being subducted the slab falls almost straight down and where younger plates are being subducted the slab descends at a shallow angle. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading.

The process of subduction. At subduction zones the edge of the denser plate subducts or slides beneath the less dense one. The process by which ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle is called subduction sub duk shun. As subduction occurs crust closer to a mid ocean ridge moves away from the ridge and toward a deep ocean trench.

Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. However not all subduction zone earthquakes will cause tsunamis. Regions where this process occurs are known as subduction zones rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year with the average rate of convergence being. Subduction in the form of gravitational slab pull is thought to be the largest force driving plate tectonics.