Seafloor Spread Research Paper

One evidence of this theory is molten material. Molten Material is magma erupting from mid-ocean ridges. Alvin the submarine found weird rocks shaped like pillows or toothpaste. This tells us this magma cools quickly underwater. Another type of evidence are magnetic stripes. Magnetic stripes are patterns in the ocean floor to prove Earth’s magnetic field has reversed itself in history. Scientist also looked at the “magnetic memory” of the rocks. Scientist drilled pipes through water to drill holes into the ocean floor. Scientists discovered that the older rocks were further away and younger rocks were closer. Those were the three types of evidence that scientist used to support the theory of Sea Floor Spreading.

The plate tectonics theory was made by a German named Alfred Wegener. He stated that a single continent existed about 300 million years ago named Pangaea and that it split into two continents of Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south. Today’s continents were formed by further splitting of the two masses.

II: Plate tectonics shows the features and movement of the Earth. The theory of plate tectonics says that the outer shell of the earth is broken down into pieces often called plates (Korenaga). These plates hover over the mantle creating movement (Marshak). With plate tectonics you can determine the earth’s features without actually seeing it.

The theory of plate tectonics was first developed by Alfred Wegener. He concluded that the continents seem to have a similar shape and could potentially fit together. This suggested that they were at one time joined together as part of 2 super continents called Gondwanaland and Laurasia was in the north. This theory was said to be proven by the discovery of fossilised remains of a mesosaurus that were found on the coasts of Brazil and Gabon. Sea floor spreading is another theory that supports the idea of plate tectonics; this theory discovered that rock is being formed under the ocean as a new sea floor. Sea floor spreading was shown in the Atlantic, where it is believed the Eurasian and North American plates are moving apart on a

In junior high school, I have learned the Continental Drift Theory, and my geography teacher told me there was a new theory based on the Continental Theory, i.e. Plate Tectonics. I accessed to the Internet to find the information about Plate Tectonics.

To support the theory of continental drift is through topography, surveying the floors of oceans, charts of rock magnetism, and statistics on rock ages (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). At one time scientist believed that the deep ocean floors were flat; accumulating the sediment that progressively wore away from the prehistoric landmasses (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). However, they discovered steep-walled valleys and elevated highlands. This was evidences that just as the continents are transformed and are active, so to is the seafloor (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). The Mid- Atlantic Ridge, positioned in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, is recorded to be the longest mountain range on this planet. Volcanoes, lava flow, and earthquakes are a source of

James Hutton was the first scientist to address the Earth was millions of years old, as well as alive and is continuously being formed. Charles Lyell popularized uniformitarianism, and believed the Earth was being shaped by slow moving forces. Alfred Wegener introduced the foundation for the theory of continental drift. Wegener was one of the first to recognize and have an understanding of how the Earth works which required data and information from earth sciences. In the 1960s, the theory for the continental drift became known as the theory of plate tectonics or plate building.

If new crust is indeed being produced at the rifts, where does the additional older crust go?

Continental drift was a theory offered by Alfred Wegener in 1912 that hypothesized that all the continents at one time fit together as one land mass. Wegener, explained that the ends of each continent could fit together like a puzzle and that over time the continents drifted apart. "The model explained why the same types of fossils occur in sedimentary rock on both sides of the vast Atlantic Ocean" (Star, 2008, pg. 250), in other words allopatric speciation. Wegener's theory did not have a supporting geological mechanism. Many years later and advances in technology brought about the plate tectonics theory. Essentially it says:

He also used an Austrian geologist’s theory that the continental crust, sial, was lighter than sima and the sial layer could move across the ocean floor (Healey, 2006, para. 15). Wegener further stated that the tides could cause the continents to move and later came to the conclusion that magma could also be responsible for the movement. Wegener made two more journeys to Greenland to conduct meteorological and geophysical studies. His final trek in 1930 included the examination of the glacial sheets to provide further evidence regarding

Throughout history, scientists have made several theories about every scientific issue. There have been arguments and rebuttals to every theory from creation to lost civilizations. One theory that has survived is that of the continental drift, which theorizes that the continents as we know them today once were combined to form larger land masses. Those land masses then split apart and moved from tectonic plate shifting into what we know today (Abbott 2013). A well known scientist and large supporter of this theory was the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener (Abbott 2013). Around the close of the First World War, Wegener published his findings supported by samples of fossils and rocks. These samples were collected from opposing sides of the

Alfred Wegener was a scientist who proposed the continental drift theory. The hypothesis Wegener had been the continents were once all together, then over time they drifted apart from each other. The example Wegener used were jigsaw puzzle. If you put all the continents together, they will match exactly up such as a puzzle. Plenty of scientist did not agree with Wegener because of his evidences. Wegener gained more evidences such as similar fossils were on the edge of South America and Africa, were Wegener believed were once together.

Wegener believed that the continents conformed into a full unit at one point, similar to that of a puzzle. This idea of a single, large continent came to be known as Pangea, which in translation, means ‘all-earth.’ Wegner also brought forth the idea that throughout the Jurassic period, Pangea split into two smaller supercontinents, called Laurasia and Gondwanaland. On the other hand, Wegener did not acquire an explanation for how the continents were capable of moving around the planet. Researchers today, however, are able to explain that. For example, Nicholas van der Elst, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, explains that the driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in

In the early 1900´s, Alfred Wegener developed a hypothesis called the continental drift. This hypothesis states that All continents Were once joined together in a single landmass. Over time, All continents drifted apart Called the continental drift.This Paragraph will state 4 Types of evidence why Each piece of evidence supports the claim.

After World War 2, the U.S. Office of Naval Research intensified efforts in ocean-floor mapping, leading to the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to be part of a continous system of mid-oceanic ridges on all ocean floors, prompting Harry H. Hess to suggest the theory of sea-floor spreading. The oldest fossils found in ocean sediments were only 180 million years old and little sediment were accumulated on the ocean floor. Thus, he suggested that seafloors were no more than a few hundred million years old, significantly younger than continental land due to