At the end of the lesson,

you should be able to:

 Describe how seafloor spreading
happens
 • Explain how drill samples proved that
seafloor is spreading.
http://education.sdsc.edu/optiputer/flash/seafloorspread.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzvDlP6xd9o

Guide Questions

1. What is seafloor spreading?

2. What is formed at the mid-ocean ridges?
3. Where is the oceanic crust destroyed?
4. How many inches does the seafloor spreads
every year?
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.
 SEAFLOOR SPREADING
 the process that continually adds new
material to the ocean floor while
pushing older rocks away from the
ridge
 New oceanic crust is created at the
ridges and recycled at the trenches
 Seafloor spreading is not consistent at all mid-ocean ridges.
It spreads 2-5 centimeters (.8-2 inches) every year
As magma bubbles up at sites of seafloor spreading, it is cooled by frigid
seawater and becomes Earth's newest oceanic crust. Most of this new
igneous rock is basalt, like this pillow lava that bubbled up at the East
Pacific Rise near the Galapagos Islands.
Seafloor spreading helps create mid-ocean ridges, giant underwater mountain ranges that
develop where tectonic activity is driving plates apart from each other. This lovely map highlights
where tectonic plates are separating at mid-ocean ridges.
Slow spreading centers have steep cliffs
and plunging ocean trenches. This rocky
outcrop is part of the slow-spreading
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it juts above
sea level on the island of Iceland. To the
left is the eastern edge of the North
American continent. On the right is the
western edge of Eurasia. (Fast spreading
centers, such as the East Pacific Rise,
have more gentle slopes and lack deep
trenches.)
 Sea-Floor Spreading
1. Evidence from drill samples
 Rocks are younger at the mid-ocean
ridge
 Rocks farther from the mid-ocean ridge
are older
 Sediments are thinner at the ridge
 Rocks at the ocean floor are younger
than those at the continents)
The oldest rocks found on the
ocean floor are about 160 million
years old. The Earth is about 4.6
billion years old. Why are there not
any rocks older than 160 million
years on the seafloor?

What happened to the older

rocks?”
Draw a diagram that
illustrates seafloor
spreading. Use arrows to
indicate the direction of
plate motion and label the
“youngest” and “oldest”
crust.
END OF part 1
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
Sea-Floor Spreading
Sea-Floor Spreading
Sea-Floor Spreading