Seafloor Spreading

Studying the Ocean Floor

Advances in ocean exploration technology in the 1940s and 1950s led to new information about
the ocean floor. Scientists began to realize that the crust beneath oceans is not as old as the crust
beneath continents. They also learned that the ocean floor is not flat and barren. Instead, it
contains many topographic features. In fact, one of the largest mountain ranges in the world is at
the bottom of the ocean.

This mountain range, the mid-ocean ridge (shown in dark blue), is made up of two parallel
mountain chains separated by a central valley. It is nearly 65,000 kilometers long and an average
of 4,500 meters tall. This map shows the different parts of the mid-ocean ridge system.

Scientists have discovered other information about the ocean floor as well:
● Sediments at the bottom of the ocean have been building up for a maximum of only 300
million years. If the ocean floor had not changed throughout Earth’s history, these sediments
would be about 4 billion years old.
● Similarly, the oldest fossils on the ocean floor are only about 180 million years old. Marine
fossils buried in Earth’s continents are thought to be much older.
● Scientists realized that some process must be destroying older sediments and fossils on the
ocean floor. Because rocks and fossils on the continents are much older than those on the
ocean floor, this process must affect oceanic crust differently than it does continental crust.

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If oceanic crust is being destroyed, where do you

think it goes? What happens to the crust after it is
destroyed? Where does new crust come from? A
navy geologist found the answers to the questions.

Scientists in the Spotlight: Harry Hess and

Seafloor Spreading
Harry Hess was a geologist who served in the US
Navy during World War II. Hess used some of the
navy’s ocean-exploration technology to study
divergent plate boundaries (where tectonic plates Seafloor spreading happens as molten rock
move apart) at the mid-ocean ridge and other from Earth's mantle forces its way through
ocean features. In the 1950s and early 1960s, divergent boundary openings in the oceanic
Harry Hess used his research of the ocean floor to crust. This pushes apart the ocean floor and
develop a hypothesis of seafloor spreading. causes Earth's crust to move.

Seafloor spreading creates new ocean floor.

Seafloor spreading is a phenomenon by which
magma from Earth’s mantle (the layer beneath the
crust) wells up at the mid-ocean ridge, pushing the
ocean floor apart, which is called rifting. When the
magma reaches the surface of the ocean crust, it
cools and solidifies into igneous rock. This makes
new oceanic crust in the center of the mid-ocean
ridge.

Old crust sinks at trenches.

Hess also reasoned that older oceanic crust that is
pushed toward continental crust is destroyed as it
sinks into deep ocean trenches at convergent plate
boundaries (where tectonic plates collide). The
oceanic crust is denser than the continental crust
and subducts at the trench. That is why oceanic
crust is younger than continental crust—oceanic
crust is continually being recycled.
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Tying It All Together

Geologists have several major pieces of evidence that support the idea that new crust forms at
mid-ocean ridges and then moves away as new crust continues to form and that the oldest crust
is being destroyed at seafloor trenches. Here is a summary of their findings:
● Regions of different continents that share
similar fossils and similar rocks suggest
that in the geologic past, those sections
of continent were once attached and
have since separated.
● The shapes of continents and the edges
of the continental shelves (ocean floor
next to coastlines), which roughly fit
together (like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle),
suggest that those landmasses were
once joined and have since separated.
● There is a distribution of seafloor
structures (for example, volcanic ridges at
the centers of oceans where magma
breaks through and trenches at the edges
of continents where old crust goes under
the continental crust to melt and be
recycled).
● There are patterns of ages of rocks of the
seafloor (youngest ages at the ridge,
oldest ages at the trenches).
● Images of underwater molten magma
erupting at a mid-ocean ridge are shown
below.

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Modeling Seafloor Spreading

1. Divide a landscape 8.5 x 11 piece of paper into eight columns. Number the columns like
they are shown below.

1 2 3 4 4 3 2 1

2. Fold the paper in half along the bold line so the numbers are facing each other.
3. Slide the folded piece of paper between two desks, holding on to each edge.
4. Gently pull the paper up and flat on the two desks so that only the columns labeled 1 are
lying side by side. The rest of the paper should still be folded between the desks.
5. Color both of the columns labeled 1 red.
6. Gently pull outward on the edges of the paper so that now both columns labeled 1 and 2
are flat on the desk side by side. Color the columns labeled 2 blue.
7. Do the same for columns labeled 3 and color them green.
8. Do the same for columns labeled 4 and color them yellow.

Here are some questions to discuss:

● What does the piece of paper represent in this model?

● What do the columns represent?
● What column or columns represent the oldest seafloor?
● What column or columns represent the youngest seafloor?
● Where is the mid-ocean ridge located in this model?