Theory Of Seafloor Spreading Is Supported By

Theory of plate tectonics when the concept of seafloor spreading came along scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to explain how continents could move around earth s surface.

Theory of seafloor spreading is supported by.

A veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis. Keeping earth in shape. Its discovery provided a mechanism for continental drift that alfred wegener could not explain. Supporters of continental drift originally theorize d that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans.

Seafloor spreading theory of lithospheric evolution that holds that the ocean floors are spreading outward from vast underwater ridges. Since then it has been shown that the motion of the continents is linked to seafloor spreading by the theory of plate tectonics. In this lesson you will learn about this important. Seafloor spreading is a part of plate tectonics.

Like the scientists before us we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics. First proposed in the early 1960s by the american geologist harry h. Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity. Harry hess s hypothesis about seafloor spreading had collected several pieces of evidence to support the theory.

The driver for seafloor spreading in plates with active margins is the weight of the cool dense subducting slabs that pull them along or slab pull. This evidence however was also used to support the theory of continental drift. Studies conducted with thermal probes for example indicate that the heat flow through bottom sediments is generally comparable to that through the continents except over the mid ocean ridges where at some sites the heat flow measures three to four times the normal value.