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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]
In the 1960s, geologists discovered and began to propose mechanisms for seafloor spreading. The discovery of mid-ocean ridges and the process of seafloor spreading allowed for Wegener's theory to be expanded so that it included the movement of oceanic crust as well as the continents. [49]
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 ...
World War II in the Pacific led to great improvements of bathymetry, particularly in the western Pacific. In light of these new measurements, the linear nature of the deeps became clear. There was a rapid growth of deep sea research efforts, especially the widespread use of echosounders in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge stretches 10,000 miles from north to south, and is considered “the longest mountain range in the world and one of the most prominent geological features on Earth,” NOAA ...
Divers investigating mysterious sheets of steel on the seafloor off Guam have discovered what amounts to a sunken trail in the Pacific Ocean. The pierced steel planking (PSP) has been identified ...
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