Plate Movements Plate Boundaries And Sea Floor Spreading Model

Creates new ocean floor where plates spread apart at mid ocean ridges.

Plate movements plate boundaries and sea floor spreading model.

A process called sea floor spreading. Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. Hot magma rises to the. Bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics the outer rocky layer of the earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig saw puzzle floating on top of the earth s hot flowing mantle.

In places where convection currents rise up towards the crust s surface tectonic plates move away from each other in a process known as seafloor spreading fig. Plate tectonics plate tectonics transform faults. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor. Along the third type of plate boundary two plates move laterally and pass each other along giant fractures in earth s crust.

Seafloor spreading at mid ocean ridges. Samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process. These convergent boundaries also occur where a plate of ocean dives in a process called subduction under a landmass. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading.

Pertaining to building is a scientific theory describing the large scale motion of seven large plates and the movements of a larger number of smaller plates of earth s lithosphere since tectonic processes began on earth between 3 3 and 3 5 billion years ago. Convection currents drive the movement of earth s rigid tectonic plates in the planet s fluid molten mantle. Makes most of the earth s earthquakes and volcanoes. Tectonicus from the ancient greek.

A chain of volcanoes often forms parallel to convergent plate boundaries and powerful earthquakes are common along these boundaries. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. The majority of transform faults link the offset segments of oceanic ridges. The impact of the colliding plates can cause the edges of one or both plates to buckle up into a mountain ranges or one of the plates may bend down into a deep seafloor trench.

At subduction zones the edge of the denser plate subducts or slides beneath the less dense one. The denser lithospheric material then melts back into the earth s mantle. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be. Transform faults are so named because they are linked to other types of plate boundaries.

In chapter 2 you learned about plate tectonics the well proven concept that the earth s surface is split up into several dozen moving plates of rock. Plate tectonics from the late latin.