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  2. Oceanic crust - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_crust

    As continental plates diverge at these ridges, magma rises into the upper mantle and crust. As the continental plates move away from the ridge, the newly formed rocks cool and start to erode with sediment gradually building up on top of them. The youngest oceanic rocks are at the oceanic ridges, and they get progressively older away from the ...

  3. Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vine–Matthews–Morley...

    The Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis, also known as the Morley–Vine–Matthews hypothesis, was the first key scientific test of the seafloor spreading theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. Its key impact was that it allowed the rates of plate motions at mid-ocean ridges to be computed.

  4. List of tectonic plates - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tectonic_plates

    Map showing Earth's principal tectonic plates and their boundaries in detail. These plates comprise the bulk of the continents and the Pacific Ocean.For purposes of this list, a major plate is any plate with an area greater than 20 million km 2 (7.7 million sq mi)

  5. Plate tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plate_tectonics

    Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.

  6. Seabed - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabed

    Biogenous material is the sediment made up of the hard parts of sea creatures, mainly phytoplankton, that accumulate on the bottom of the ocean. Hydrogenous sediment is material that precipitates in the ocean when oceanic conditions change, or material created in hydrothermal vent systems.

  7. Mid-ocean ridge - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-ocean_ridge

    Plate tectonics was a suitable explanation for seafloor spreading, and the acceptance of plate tectonics by the majority of geologists resulted in a major paradigm shift in geological thinking. It is estimated that along Earth's mid-ocean ridges every year 2.7 km 2 (1.0 sq mi) of new seafloor is formed by this process. [50]

  8. Earth's crustal evolution - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_crustal_evolution

    The anhydrous nature of the crust on Venus prevents it from sliding past each other, whereas through the study of oxygen isotopes, the presence of water on Earth can be confirmed from 4.3 Ga. [22] Thus, this model helps provide a mechanism for how plate tectonics could have been triggered on Earth, although it does not demonstrate that ...

  9. Outline of plate tectonics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_plate_tectonics

    Where the plates meet, their relative motion determines the type of plate boundary (or fault): convergent, divergent, or transform. The relative movement of the plates typically ranges from zero to 10 cm annually. Faults tend to be geologically active, experiencing earthquakes, volcanic activity, mountain-building, and oceanic trench formation.