Sea-Floor Spreading

Tubeworms have no mouth, eyes, or stomach ("gut"). Their survival depends on a symbiotic relationship with the billions of bacteria that live inside of them. These bacteria convert the chemicals that shoot out of the deep sea vents into food for the worm.

Sea-Floor Spreading Sonar - a device that bounces sound waves off under-water objects and then records the echoes of these sound waves. The time it takes for the echo to arrive indicates the distance to the object.

Sea-Floor Spreading Mid-Ocean Ridge – the longest chain of mountains in the world---these are divergent plate boundaries. Mid-Ocean Ridge – the longest chain of mountains in the world---these are divergent plate boundaries.

Sea-Floor Spreading Sea-Floor Spreading – Harry Hess in the 1960’s; the process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor while pushing older rocks away from the ridge

 Ocean floor moves like a conveyor belt carrying continents with it.  New ocean floor forms along cracks in the ocean crust as molten material erupts from the mantle spreading out and pushing older rocks to the sides of the crack.  New ocean floor is continually added by the process of sea-floor spreading.

Sea-Floor Spreading 1. Evidence from Molten Material – Rocks shaped like pillows(rock pillows) show that molten material has erupted again and again from cracks along the mid-ocean ridge and cooled quickly

gn_IW5Vsxaw Evidence #1: Molten Material  The submersible, Alvin, found strange rocks shaped like pillows or like toothpaste squeezed from a tube.  Such rocks can form only when molten material hardens quickly after erupting under water.

Sea-Floor Spreading

2. Evidence from Magnetic Stripes – Rocks that make up the ocean floor lie in a pattern of magnetized stripes which hold a record of the reversals in Earth’s magnetic field

Evidence #2: Magnetic Stripes  Scientists discovered that the rock that makes up the ocean floor lies in a pattern of magnetized “stripes”.  They hold a record of reversals in Earth’s magnetic field.

Sea-Floor Spreading

Earth's magnetic field comes from this ocean of iron, which is an electrically conducting fluid in constant motion

Supercomputer models of Earth's magnetic field.

Sea-Floor Spreading 3. Evidence from Drilling Samples – Core samples from the ocean floor show that older rocks are found farther from the ridge; youngest rocks are in the center of the ridge

Sea-Floor Spreading Subduction – Process by which the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep- ocean trench and back into the mantle; this part of the ocean floor melts in the process

Sea-Floor Spreading: Subduction zone Deep-Ocean Trench – Occurs at subduction zones. Deep underwater canyons form where oceanic crust bends downward

Sea-Floor Spreading

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