Module 5 Seafloor Spreading

CE221
GEOLOGY FOR DEPARTMENT OF

CIVIL ENGINEERING
ENGINEERS CAGAYAN STATEUNIVERSITY

– CARIG CAMPUS
THEORY OF
PLATE
TECTONICS
From the very beginning of earth science in the 16th
century, it was taught that the present appearance of
Earth in terms of the number, shape, and location of the
continents was determined once water filled the ocean
basins and did not change thereafter. However, by the
16th century, map makers were preparing maps of the
Seafloor continents that showed their shapes with a reasonable
degree of accuracy, certainly with sufficient accuracy that
Spreading individuals began to observe certain similarities in the
shapes of continental margins; the most obvious being
the similarity in the eastern coastline of South America
and the western coastline of Africa. The outlines of the
Atlantic coastlines of these two continents were so similar
that the obvious question was soon to arise:
Do continents really drift?

Does In 1910, Alfred Wegener proposed the theory of
continental drift. He believed that the continents were
Wegener’s drifting apart.
Theory of Like most people, the jigsaw puzzle appearance of the
Continental Atlantic continental margins caught his attention. He put
together the evidence of ancient glaciations and the
Drift really distribution of fossil to formulate a theory that the
continents have moved over the surface of the Earth,
matter? sometimes forming large supercontinents and other times
forming separate continental masses. He proposed that
prior to about 200 million years ago all of the continents
formed one large land mass that he called Pangaea.
Does He found evidences to prove his theory. But he could not
answer one question. How were the continents moving?
Wegener’s He thought they were plowing through the ocean crust.
Theory of The weakness of Wegner's theory, and the reason it was
Continental not readily accepted by geologists was that he proposed
that the continents slide over ocean floor.
Drift really Other scientists knew this could not happen. Geophysicists
matter? disagreed, stating the ocean floor did not have enough
strength to hold the continents and too much frictional
resistance wouldbe encountered.
In the 1960’s, scientists finally found what was missing in
Wegener's theory of continental drift. Geologist Harry
Discoveryof Hess finally proved that Wegener was right. The
continents are moving apart. Hess believed that seafloor
Seafloor spreading is the answer to the mystery of continental
Spreading drift.
Hess asserted that not only were the continents moving
but also newer crust is continuously being added to the
seafloor and because of that seafloor is constantly
moving.
Shortly after the conclusion of World War II, sonar-
Discoveryof equipped vessels crisscrossed the oceans collecting
ocean-depth profiles of the seafloor beneath them. The
Seafloor survey data was used to create three-dimensional relief
Spreading maps of the ocean floor, and, by 1953, American oceanic
cartographer Marie Tharp had created the first of several
maps that revealed the presence of an underwater
mountain range more than 16,000 km (10,000 miles)
long in theAtlantic – the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Discoveryof
On the basis of Tharp’s efforts and other new discoveries
Seafloor about the deep-ocean floor, Hess postulated that molten
Spreading material from Earth’s mantle continuously wells up along
the crests of the mid-ocean ridges that wind for nearly
80,000 km (50,000 miles) through all the world’s oceans.
Themid-oceanridgeisa
50,000-mile chainofvolcanic
mountainsinthemiddleof
The theocean.Thesemountains
havea deepcrackthatruns
Mid-Ocean throughthem.Itiscalleda
riftvalley.Seafloor
Ridge spreadinghappens here.Itis
aslow, regularprocess.There
arenoexplosiveburstslike
volcaniceruptionsonland.
Duringseafloorspreading,
magmarises fromthe
mantle.Itoozesoutofthe
riftvalley.Itcoolsandforms
The newcrustorrocks.A small
amountofnewoceanfloor
Mid-Ocean isaddedtothesurfaceof
Ridge theearth.Itfillsthegapat
theridge.As thiscycle
continues,thenewly
created crustslowlymoves
awayfromtheridge.
Subduction
Zone
You might think that because of seafloor spreading, the earth should be growing
larger. But seafloor spreading is a recycling process. New crust is created at the mid-
ocean ridge. Old crust is pushed back into deep sea trenches. This process is called
subduction. Thus, the area where much of old crust melts into the mantle is the
subductionzone.Thiskeepstheearthfromgrowinglarger.
KeepingEarth
in Shape by
Subduction
Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of
spreading apart. At subduction zones, the edge of the denser plate subducts, or
slides, beneath the less-dense one. The denser lithospheric material then melts back
into the Earth's mantle. Seafloor spreading creates new crust. Subduction
destroys old crust. The two forces roughly balance each other, so the shape and
diameteroftheEarthremainconstant.
Seafloor spreading is a geologic process where there is a
gradual addition of new oceanic crust in the ocean floor
through a volcanic activity while moving the older rocks
TheIdea away from the mid-oceanic ridge. The mid-ocean ridge is
where the seafloor spreading occurs, in which tectonic
plates – large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere – split apart
from eachother.
The mid-ocean ridge is the region where new oceanic
crust is created. The oceanic crust is composed of rocks
that move away from the ridge as new crust is being
formed. The formation of the new crust is due to the
TheProcess rising of the molten material (magma) from the mantle
by convection current. When the molten magma
reaches the oceanic crust, it cools and pushes away the
existing rocks from the ridge equally in both directions.
Hess’s discovery on the warmer temperature near the mid-
Atlantic ridge when he began the ocean mapping, led to
his evidence about the molten material underneath the
ocean. The condition on the mid-oceanic ridge was
TheProcess substantially different from other surfaces away from the
region because of the warmer temperature. He described
that the molten magma from the mantle arose due to the
convection currents in the interior of the earth.
The convection current was due to the radioactive energy
from the earth’s core that makes the materials in the lower
mantle to become warm, less dense and rise. The flow of
the materials goes through the upper mantle and leaks
TheProcess through the plates of the crust. This makes the
temperature near the mid-oceanic ridge becomes warm
and the other surface to become cold because as the
molten magma continues to push upward, it moves the
rocksaway from the ridge.
TheProcess
Convection Mechanism. As old crust drifts from the ridge, a younger oceanic crust is
then formed, causing the spread of the ocean floor. The new rock is dense but not as
dense as the old rock that moves away from the ridge. As the rock moves, further, it
becomes colder and denser until it reaches an ocean trench or continues spreading.
It is believed that the successive movement of the rocks
from the ridge progressively increases the ocean depth
and have greater depths in the ocean trenches. Seafloor
TheProcess spreading leads to the renewal of the ocean floor in
every 200 million years, a period of time for building a
mid-ocean ridge, moving away across the ocean and
subduction into atrench.
The highly dense oceanic crust that is formed after a
progressive spreading is destined to two possible occurrences.
It can either be subducted into the ocean deep trench or
continue to spread across the ocean until it reaches a coast.
Subduction Subduction is the slanting and downward movement of the
edge of a crustal plate into the mantle beneath another plate.
It occurs when an incredibly dense ocean crust meets a deep
ocean trench. On the other hand, if the ocean crusts
continuous to move along the ocean and not found a trench,
no subduction will occur. It will continue to spread until a
coast is found and literally pushing it away towards its
direction.
Two possible things could happen in the subduction of
ocean crust. Once the subduction occurs, a melting
happens due to a tremendous friction. The ocean crust is
Subduction then melted into magma. The magma could either go
back into the mantle for another convection currents
leading again to another sea floor spreading or it could
burst through a crack in a continental crust and creates a
volcano.
Seafloor
Spreading
in a Single
Illustration
Samples of the deep ocean floor show that basaltic oceanic crust
and overlying sediment become progressively younger as the mid-
ocean ridge is approached, and the sediment cover is thinner near
the ridge.
Evidences
The rock making up the ocean floor is considerably
younger than the continents, with no samples found
Evidences over 200 million years old, as contrasted with maximum
ages of over 3 billion years for the continental rocks. This
confirms that older ocean crust has been reabsorbed in
ocean trenchsystems.
Evidences
Paleo-magnetism: By the mid-1960s studies of the
earth’s magnetic field showed a history of periodic
reversals in polarity. Magnetic surveys conducted near
Evidences the mid-ocean ridge showed elongated patterns of
normal and reversed polarity of the ocean floor inbands
paralleling the rift and symmetrically distributed as
mirror images on either side of it.
Evidences
Scientists studied Hess's and Wegener's work. The
theory of continental drift was combined with the theory
of sea-floor spreading. This led to the theory of plate
tectonics.
Birth of a
The theory of plate tectonics says that the lithosphere is
NewTheory broken into pieces called tectonic plates. The plates have
a thin layer of crust above a layer of cool hard rocks.
Most of them have both continental and oceanic crust.
These tectonic plates fit together like joints made by a
carpenter. There are about twelve large plates and a few
smaller ones.They make up the earth's surface.
The plates float like rafts on the asthenosphere. This is a
partly molten, flowing layer below the solid part of the
earth's mantle. When one plate moves, it affects all the
others. The movement of some of these plates causes
Birth of a sea-floor spreading.
NewTheory Other dynamic events also happen along plate
boundaries. They cause our planet to be constantly
changing. The theory of plate tectonics explains how
earth's crust moves. Volcanoes, earthquakes, and the
formation of mountains are all explained by the theory
of platetectonics.

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CE221

GEOLOGY FOR DEPARTMENT OF

ENGINEERS CAGAYAN STATEUNIVERSITY

Do continents really drift?

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