What happens when seafloor spreading increases?
Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from the mantle's convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor. Eventually, the crust cracks.
Why do seafloor spreading rates change?
1 Answer. The seafloor changes because of the earth plates moving causing magma to spew in the water. The magma is then pushed outward causing the seafloor to move and change.
What would happen if the rate of seafloor spreading was faster?
What would happen if the rate of seafloor spreading was faster than the rate of subduction? The Earth would grow larger.
How does the rate of seafloor spreading?
These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined, and they show that rates vary from about 0.1 cm (0.04 inch) per year to 17 cm (6.7 inches) per year. Seafloor-spreading rates are much more rapid in the Pacific Ocean than in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
What does seafloor spreading produce?
Seafloor spreading takes place at midocean ridges and produces basalt, the rock that makes up the oceanic crust. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise are examples of midocean ridges.
Does seafloor spreading cause climate change?
The rate of spreading determines how much CO2 is released to the atmosphere. When seafloor spreading speeds up, more lava is produced, causing more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, promoting global warming.
What causes seafloor spreading quizlet?
The older rock moves outward on both sides of the ridge as new rock forms in the center of the ridge from cooling of molten material. This process is sea floor spreading.
What is seafloor spreading and why is it important?
Seafloor spreading is the mechanism by which new oceanic lithosphere is created at and moves away from divergent plate boundaries. The seafloor spreading hypothesis led to one of the most important paradigm shifts in the history of the Earth sciences, the plate tectonics scientific revolution.
Where does seafloor spreading happen?
Seafloor spreading or Seafloor spread is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge.
What does the rate of spreading dictate?
9: What does the rate of spreading dictate? ~ The rate of spreading indicates by influences/persuades the topography of the ridge.
How does seafloor spreading affect environment?
The rate of spreading determines how much CO2 is released to the atmosphere. When seafloor spreading speeds up, more lava is produced, causing more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, promoting global warming.
What will happen if subduction is faster than seafloor spreading?
At subduction zones the edge of the denser plate subducts or slides beneath the less-dense one. The denser lithospheric material then melts back into the Earth's mantle. Seafloor spreading creates new crust. Subduction destroys old crust.
How do the rates of seafloor spreading relate to changes in sea level?
The increased rate of seafloor spreading caused sea level to rise. Increasing the rate of seafloor spreading inflates the ridge. Hot, young lithosphere is forming and moving away from the ridge at a faster rate and moves a greater distance from the ridge before it cools and contracts.
How can seafloor spreading affect the environment?
The rate of spreading determines how much CO2 is released to the atmosphere. When seafloor spreading speeds up, more lava is produced, causing more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, promoting global warming.
How are the rates of seafloor spreading related to changes in sea level quizlet?
How do the rates of seafloor spreading relate to changes in sea level? As the rates of seafloor spreading increase, the sea level rises.
What force causes seafloor spreading?
The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones, rather than magma pressure, although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges.
Which geologic features result from seafloor spreading?
The main geographical feature formed by the process of seafloor spreading are mid-ocean ridges. Usually, these submarine mountain ranges have a valley running on their spine which is known as a rift and is about a mile in depth.
Do ocean basins get wider as a result of seafloor spreading?
Ocean basins get wider as a result of sea-floor spreading. Ocean floor is destroyed by the process of subduction. To keep Earth's surface area constant, the amount of sea floor spreading must equal the amount of subduction. Subduction causes continents to move together; sea floor spreading moves them apart.
Do ocean basins get narrower as a result of seafloor spreading?
Ocean basins get narrower as a result of seafloor spreading. D. Subduction causes continents to move apart; seafloor spreading brings them together. To keep the Earth's surface area constant, the amount of seafloor spreading must equal the amount of subduction.
Does global warming cause the seafloor to rise?
For example, Earth has warmed since the last Ice Age, which peaked between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago. The ice sheets that once covered much of North America and Eurasia have melted, causing sea level to rise by about 120 m.
Does seafloor spreading affect climate?
When seafloor spreading speeds up, more lava is produced, causing more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere, promoting global warming.
What is a typical rate for seafloor spreading quizlet?
Average rate of seafloor spreading is 1 meter per year.
Which of the following increases with distance from a mid-ocean ridge?
The seafloor depth increases with distance away from the midocean ridges. The midocean ridges lie about 2.5 km below sea level.
How does the rate of seafloor spreading affect sea level quizlet?
How does the rate of seafloor spreading affect the sea level? Faster spreading produces broader ridges that displace water and expand the oceans.
How do the rates of seafloor spreading relate to changes in sea level quizlet?
How do the rates of seafloor spreading relate to changes in sea level? As the rates of seafloor spreading increase, the sea level rises.
What happens when the seafloor spreads quizlet?
In sea-floor spreading, the sea floor spreads apart along both sides of a mid-ocean ridge as new crust is added. As a result, the ocean floors move like conveyor belts, carrying the continents along with them.
How do differences in density and temperature cause sea floor spreading and subduction?
1 Answer. The cooler denser mantle sinks causing subduction and the hotter mantle rises to the surface causing sea floor spreading.
What is formed in the process of the seafloor spreading?
The main geographical feature formed by the process of seafloor spreading are mid-ocean ridges.
How do oceans get wider according to the seafloor spreading theory?
Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid-ocean ridges a process called ridge push. At a spreading center, basaltic magma rises up the fractures and cools on the ocean floor to form new seabed.
Which one of the following is the reason for a sea level rise?
The two major causes of global sea level rise are thermal expansion caused by warming of the ocean (since water expands as it warms) and increased melting of land-based ice, such as glaciers and ice sheets.