SEA-FLOOR SPREADING
• Proposed in the early 1960s , the new ocean
floor is created where two plates move away
from one another at mid-ocean ridges.
• Sea-floor sreading is what happens at the
mid-oceanic ridge where a divergent
boundary is causing two plates to move away
from one another resulting in spreading of
the sea-floor. As the plates move apart, new
material wells up and cools onto the edge of
the plates.
PROPOSED BY AN AMERICAN GEOPHYSICIST
HARRY H. HESS IN 1960.
By the use of the sonar, he was able to map the
ocean floor and discovered the mid-Atlantic ridge
(mid-ocean ridge).
He also found out that the temperature near to
the mid-Atlantic ridge was warmer than the
surface away from it.
He believed that the high temperature was due to
the magma that leaked out from the ridge.
HARRY H. HESS
OCEAN BASINS
Oceans form the largest ecosystem on Earth.
Much remains to be discovered about what lies
below the ocean’s surface.
Only about 1% of the ocean floor has been
mapped
Most of the ocean (100 metres and below) is
pitch-black.
Continental Shelf – the gradual slope between the coastline and the
edge of the ocean basin
Continental Slope – a steep drop dividing the continental slope and the
ocean basin
Abyssal Plain – wide, open, flat plains that stretch out along the ocean
basin
Oceanic Trench – narrow, deep, and steep sided canyons running along
some ocean floors. Some of the deepest places on Earth
A JOURNEY ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
The formation of the ocean landscape are due
mainly to the movements of Earth’s tectonic
plates.
Features in the ocean basins are much bigger than
on land.
There are mountain ranges taller than the
Himalayas.
Steep valleys deeper than the Grand Canyon.
Plains wider than the Canadian Prairies.
CONTINENTAL SHELVES & SLOPES
Ocean basins do not begin at the coastline. They begin may km out
at sea.
The area between the coast and the edge of the ocean basin is
actually a submerged part of the continent, called the continental
shelf.
Continental Slopes exist at the edge of the shelves and plunge at
steep angles to the sea floor.
SEAMOUNTS
Large underwater
mountain peaks called
seamounts exist at
the edges of mid-
ocean ranges.
Seamounts are most
often found in clusters
and are most common
in the Pacific Ocean.
TRENCHES
Along the sea floor are narrow,
steep-sided canyons, called
trenches.
They are formed where the
edge of an ocean plate pushes
against the edge of a continental
plate. As the plates move
together, the ocean plate is
forced to bend steeply down
beneath the heavier continental
plate.
TRENCHES (CONT.)
The deepest trench,
Marianas Trench, extends
11 km below sea level.
Nearly SEVEN times
deeper than the Grand
Canyon and deep enough
to submerge an object as
tall as Mount Everest.
ABYSSAL PLAINS
Between the high mountains
and the deep trenches, the
ocean floors are very flat.
These wide open features are
called abyssal plains.
They are formed of thick
deposits of sediment, up to 1
km deep in places.
As tectonic plates move
apart or together, some
oceans expand, while
other shrink. Precise
measurements show that
the Atlantic Ocean is
expanding, carrying North
America and Europe
farther part at a rate of 3
cm per year.
MID-OCEAN RIDGES
Long undersea mountain chains
called mid-ocean ridges run along
the ocean floor
These ridges are the youngest areas
of the sea floor and are still being
formed by volcanic eruptions.
Molten lava flows from these ridges,
quickly hardening into new plate
material that pushes tectonic plates
further apart.
Mid-ocean ridges are more than
1000 km wide and rise over 1000-
3000 m above the sea floor.
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