EARTH SCIENCE
TECTONICS
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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Lithospheric plates join together under the ocean floor.
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Lithospheric plates are formed under the ocean floor.
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Lithospheric plates move apart under the ocean floor.
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Lithospheric plates rub together under the ocean floor.
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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: -Seafloor Spreading at Mid-Ocean Ridges. Convection currents drive the movement of Earth’s rigid tectonic plates in the planet’s fluid molten 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. 7.21).
Detailed explanation-3: -As the magma cools, it is pushed away from the flanks of the ridges. This spreading creates a successively younger ocean floor, and the flow of material is thought to bring about the migration, or drifting apart, of the continents.
Detailed explanation-4: -When the Earth’s magnetic field reverses, the magnetized minerals align in the opposite direction. The record of magnetic reversals is carried away from each side of the spreading center of a mid-ocean ridge, showing that the molten rock is creating new lithosphere.
Detailed explanation-5: -Lesson Summary. The theory of seafloor spreading explains that molten material moves in at the boundaries between tectonic plates pushing them apart as new oceanic crust is created.