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Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. (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). Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast, intermediate, or slow.
Harry Hess proposed the seafloor spreading hypothesis in 1960 (published in 1962 [1]); the term "spreading of the seafloor" was introduced by geophysicist Robert S. Dietz in 1961. [2] According to Hess, seafloor was created at mid-oceanic ridges by the convection of the Earth's mantle, pushing and spreading the older crust away from the ridge. [3]
The seafloor spreading center jumps three times, at 25.5 Ma, at 24.7 Ma and at 20.5 Ma. [7] These jumps are regarded as the boundaries of the three sea floor spreading episodes that moved the extension to the south out of its original position in the Xisha Trough. Figure 4 shows the trajectory of the seafloor spreading center. 37 Ma to 25.5 Ma.
Correlation of the anomalies to the history of Earth's magnetic field reversals allowed the age of the seafloor to be estimated. [22] This connection was interpreted as the spreading of the seafloor from the ridge crests. [23] [22] Linking spreading centers and transform faults to a common cause helped to develop the concept of plate tectonics ...
Marine geological studies were of extreme importance in providing the critical evidence for sea floor spreading and plate tectonics in the years following World War II. The deep ocean floor is the last essentially unexplored frontier and detailed mapping in support of economic ( petroleum and metal mining ), natural disaster mitigation, and ...
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of the ocean is very deep, where the seabed is known as the abyssal plain. Seafloor spreading creates ...
A good approximation is that the depth of the seafloor at a location on a spreading mid-ocean ridge is proportional to the square root of the age of the seafloor. [6] The overall shape of ridges results from Pratt isostasy : close to the ridge axis, there is a hot, low-density mantle supporting the oceanic crust.
Robert Sinclair Dietz (September 14, 1914 – May 19, 1995) was a scientist with the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.Dietz, born in Westfield, New Jersey, [1] was a marine geologist, geophysicist and oceanographer who conducted pioneering research along with Harry Hammond Hess concerning seafloor spreading, published as early as 1960–1961.