GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -How did the discovery of sea-floor ridges affect the ability of the scientific community to accept Alfred Wegener’s ideas? The ridges contained the oldest rocks on Earth. The ridges showed that earthquakes occur randomly. The ridges helped to explain plate movement.

Detailed explanation-2: -This “recycling” process, later named “seafloor spreading, ” carries off older sediment and fossils, and moves the continents as new ocean crust spreads away from the ridges. Supporting Wegener’s theory of continental drift, Hess explained how the once-joined continents had separated into the seven that exist today.

Detailed explanation-3: -He hypothesized that all of the modern-day continents had previously been clumped together in a supercontinent he called Pangaea (from ancient Greek, meaning “all lands” or “all the Earth”). Over millions of years, Wegener suggested, the continents had drifted apart.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Earth’s surface is active according to tectonic theory, moving as much as 1-2 inches a year. The many tectonic plates shift and interact all the time. This motion reshapes the Earth’s outer layer. Earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains are the result of this process.