Sea Floor Spreading Definition

Wherever the sea floor is spreading the edges move apart while the magma in the middle hardens.

Sea floor spreading definition.

Meaning of seafloor spreading. Seafloor spreading definition is the divergence at mid ocean ridges of the tectonic plates underlying the oceans that is due to upwelling from the earth s interior of magma which solidifies and adds to the spreading plates. 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. Older rocks will be found further away from the spreading zone while younger rocks will be found nearer to the.

Seafloor spreading definition a process in which new ocean floor is created as molten material from the earth s mantle rises in margins between plates or ridges and spreads out. Seafloor spreading synonyms seafloor spreading pronunciation seafloor spreading translation english dictionary definition of seafloor spreading. What does seafloor spreading mean. As the continents move apart whole new oceans.

That means the rock in the center is the youngest. Basaltic magma rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new sea floor. In the theory of plate tectonics the process by which new oceanic crust is formed by the convective upwelling of magma at mid ocean ridges resulting in. Sea floor spreading synonyms sea floor spreading pronunciation sea floor spreading translation english dictionary definition of sea floor spreading.

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. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.