Sea Floor Spreading Gis

The concept of sea floor spreading.

Sea floor spreading gis.

Marie built her physiographic map of the atlantic ocean by assembling sparse echo sounder profiles collected aboard multiple expeditions. 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. As an oceanographic cartographer marie tharp is credited with scientifically mapping the ocean floor in partnership with her colleague bruce heezen. Students study the bathymetry of the south atlantic use magnetic reversals to interpret marine magnetic anomalies and calculate the rate of seafloor spreading.

Sea floor spreading n the process of adding to the earth s crust at mid ocean ridges as magma wells up and forces previously formed crust apart. Crater lake images data movie poster cd rom. Elwha river bathymetry and acoustic backscatter 2010 bathymetry and topography data 2010 2016. This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires 1 5 2 hours to complete.

Tharp was a pioneer in science both as a woman and for her mapmaking. Channel islands images data. California seafloor mapping program central oregon data. Deep sea basins washington oregon and california report and data.

Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century. 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. Sea floor spreading the process that occurs at mid ocean ridges in which convection currents below pull the plates apart and create new sea floor.

World war ii gave scientists the tools to find the mechanism for continental drift that had eluded wegener. Sediment any solid material that has settled out of a state of suspension in liquid. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. Marie tharp s maps excited work in seafloor spreading and were fundamental to the plate tectonics revolution.

Tharp and heezen s work was revolutionary in that led to many discoveries and the theories of continental drift of plate tectonics. Maps and other data gathered during the war allowed scientists to develop the seafloor spreading hypothesis this hypothesis traces oceanic crust from its origin at a mid ocean ridge to its destruction at a deep sea trench and is the mechanism for continental drift. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

Further he claimed that continents would be pushed aside by the same forces that cause the ocean to grow.