Sea Floor Spreading

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Sea Floor spreading Seafloor spreading is a theory discovered in the 1960s by a student in Princeton University named Harry Hess. Harry Hess had a different perspective on how things worked in the seafloor setting. According to Hess hypothesis, seafloor spreading is a process where“the upwelling mantel material along the mid-ocean ridge system created new sea floor” (Tabuck, Lutgens, Tasa 2011, p.49)In more depth as pieces of mantle reach the lithosphere it spreads dragging the seafloor floor with it away from the ridge crest. In result, cracks form as pathways for lava to rise through the ocean floor. When magma collides with the ocean water, it solidifies and new crust is formed on the ocean floor. (Tabuck, Lutgens, Tasa 2011, p.49) However, Hess idea of seafloor spreading was not enough to prove it’s validly, until years later when new evidence was revealed. Fred Vine, a Cambridge University Graduate and D.H Mathews discovered that “over periods of hundredths of thousands of years, Earth’s magnetic field periodically reverses polarity.” (Tabuck, Lutgens, Tasa 2011, p.49) During this process the north and the south pole reverse allowing lava to solidify at the crest of an ocean ridge and then magnetizes with the polarity of the existing magnetic field. In other words, magnetic reversal reinforces Hess concept of seafloor spreading which involves the Earth’s magnetic field. Vine and Mathews were able to demonstrate this revelation through a magnetometer which recorded symmetrical magnetic field across the ridges. Overall, the hypothesis of seafloor spreading was an idea credited to Hess even though he did not provide enough information to prove it. Through Vine and Mathew’s experiment of magnetic reversal they were able to support and provide more evidence to make Hess theory more credible. Today seafloor spreading is active in the The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
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