GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates-large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere-split apart from each other. Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity processes are the result of mantle convection. Mantle convection is the slow, churning motion of Earth’s mantle.

Detailed explanation-2: -History of study The phenomenon is known today as plate tectonics. In locations where two plates move apart, at mid-ocean ridges, new seafloor is continually formed during seafloor spreading.

Detailed explanation-3: -As plates converge, one plate may move under the other causing earthquakes, forming volcanoes, or creating deep ocean trenches. Where plates diverge from each other, molten magma flows upward between the plates, forming mid-ocean ridges, underwater volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, and new ocean floor crust.

Detailed explanation-4: -A ridge forms along a crack in the oceanic crust. At a mid-ocean ridge, molten material rises from the mantle and erupts. The molten material then spreads out, pushing older rock to both sides of the ridge. As the molten material cools, it forms a strip of solid rock (new ocean floor) in the center of the ridge.

Detailed explanation-5: -What are the steps in the process of sea-floor spreading? 1. A long crack in the oceanic crust forms at a mid ocean ridge.