Atlantic Ocean Sea Floor Spreading

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.

Atlantic ocean sea floor spreading. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. Due to this continuous seafloor spreading occurs and makes atlantic ocean floor to be connected to other continental crust making the ocean gets wider over the time. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.

The survey data was used to create three dimensional relief maps of the ocean floor and by 1953 american oceanic cartographer marie tharp had created the first of several maps that revealed the presence of an underwater mountain range more than 16 000 km 10 000 miles long in the atlantic the mid atlantic ridge. For the north atlantic ocean using the map in the lab measure the distance between the center of the spreading center red and the border between dark yellow and light green 65 ma point i measured 2 cm. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. Seafloor spreading rates are much more rapid in the pacific ocean than in the atlantic and indian oceans.

The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. The mid atlantic ridge for instance separates the north american plate from the eurasian plate and the south american plate from the african plate the east pacific rise is a mid ocean ridge that runs through the eastern pacific ocean and separates the pacific plate from the north american. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.