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    Seafloor Spreading: A Mystery Solved

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    Darcy Evans
    Charles teaches geology and environmental science courses and holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies focused on geology and physics. Seafloor spreading is part of plate tectonics and helped explain continental drift, which Alfred Wegener could not. In 1962, Harry Hess proposed that new seafloor was being created at mid-ocean ridges, pushing the continents apart over time rather than continents plowing through seafloor, providing the first mechanism for continental drift. Scientists later found evidence of repeated magnetic field reversals preserved in bands in Atlantic seafloor basalt, supporting Hess's theory of seafloor spreading.

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    Seafloor Spreading: A Mystery Solved

    Uploaded by

    Darcy Evans
    28 views2 pages
    Charles teaches geology and environmental science courses and holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies focused on geology and physics. Seafloor spreading is part of plate tectonics and helped explain continental drift, which Alfred Wegener could not. In 1962, Harry Hess proposed that new seafloor was being created at mid-ocean ridges, pushing the continents apart over time rather than continents plowing through seafloor, providing the first mechanism for continental drift. Scientists later found evidence of repeated magnetic field reversals preserved in bands in Atlantic seafloor basalt, supporting Hess's theory of seafloor spreading.

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    Seafloor

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    Charles teaches geology and environmental science courses and holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies focused on geology and physics. Seafloor spreading is part of plate tectonics and helped explain continental drift, which Alfred Wegener could not. In 1962, Harry Hess proposed that new seafloor was being created at mid-ocean ridges, pushing the continents apart over time rather than continents plowing through seafloor, providing the first mechanism for continental drift. Scientists later found evidence of repeated magnetic field reversals preserved in bands in Atlantic seafloor basalt, supporting Hess's theory of seafloor spreading.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    28 views2 pages

    Seafloor Spreading: A Mystery Solved

    Uploaded by

    Darcy Evans
    Charles teaches geology and environmental science courses and holds a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies focused on geology and physics. Seafloor spreading is part of plate tectonics and helped explain continental drift, which Alfred Wegener could not. In 1962, Harry Hess proposed that new seafloor was being created at mid-ocean ridges, pushing the continents apart over time rather than continents plowing through seafloor, providing the first mechanism for continental drift. Scientists later found evidence of repeated magnetic field reversals preserved in bands in Atlantic seafloor basalt, supporting Hess's theory of seafloor spreading.

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    Charles teaches college courses in geology and environmental science, and holds a Ph.D.

    in
    Interdisciplinary Studies (geology and physics).
    Seafloor spreading is a part of plate tectonics. Its discovery provided a mechanism for continental
    drift that Alfred Wegener could not explain. In this lesson, you will learn about this important geologic
    process.

    Seafloor Spreading: A Mystery Solved


    In 1912 when Alfred Wegener proposed that the continents had once been joined together and had
    split apart, the biggest weakness in his hypothesis was the lack of a mechanism that would allow
    continents to move through ocean basins. At the time, everyone believed the oceans were
    permanent features, and, at the time of Wegener, there was no credible explanation for a way the
    continents could have plowed through the rocks of the seafloor.
    But in 1962, a geologist and U.S. Navy Reserve Rear Admiral named Harry Hess came up with an
    answer. Rather than plowing through seafloor rocks, Hess proposed that it was the seafloor itself
    that was pushing the continents apart. He believed that the location and topography of the Mid-
    Atlantic Ridge was not coincidence. The Mid-Atlantic ridge is an ocean ridge found along the Atlantic
    Ocean floor. The ridge, he thought, was where new seafloor was being added to the
    earth's lithosphere, which in turn pushed the continents apart. Hess called it seafloor spreading.

    Hess argued that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was a boundary where two lithospheric plates
    were rifting (being pulled apart). As that happened, rising magma from the upper part of the mantle
    filled in the cracks that formed in the earth's crust.
    After the magma solidified into basalt, and igneous rock additional rifting pulled those rocks apart,
    too. In effect, Hess proposed the existence of a magma-driven conveyor belt that continually added
    new seafloor, very slowly over time, widening the Atlantic Ocean basin and pushing apart the
    continents to either side.
    So, rather than plowing through seafloor rocks, Hess proposed that it was the seafloor itself that was
    pushing the continents apart. It was an insightful hypothesis, but was there any evidence to confirm
    Hess's idea? Or would he suffer the same criticisms that Wegener had endured?

    Seafloor Spreading: Evidence in the Rocks


    Not long after Hess published his ideas, other scientists published their measurements of the
    magnetic properties of Atlantic Ocean seafloor basalt or the seafloor magnetism. They had
    discovered an unexpected pattern preserved in the rocks.

    When igneous rocks - like basalt - crystallize, the iron atoms in them align with the magnetic field of
    the earth. Geologists were aware that the north-south magnetic polarity of the earth's magnetic field
    had reversed on occasion. But in the seafloor basalt, the researchers found a pattern of
    repeated magnetic field reversals preserved in bands 

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