Sea Floor Spreading Age

When scientists studied the magnetic properties of the.

Sea floor spreading age.

Radiometric age dating and fossil ages. Rocks on either side of the crest of oceanic ridges having equidistant locations from the crest were found to have similarities both in terms of their constituents their age and magnetic orientation. On the other hand the newest thinnest crust is located near the center of the mid ocean ridge the actual site of seafloor spreading. As the magma and lava cool at seafloor spreading centers whatever magnetic field is present get ingrained into the rock.

Ages for ocean floor between the oldest identified magnetic anomalies and continental crust are interpolated by geological estimates of the ages of passive continental margin segments. Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around. Scientists use the magnetic polarity of the sea floor to determine the age. The data is from four companion digital models of the age age uncertainty spreading rates and spreading asymmetries of the world s ocean basins.

The ocean plates spread and grow in opposite directions so rocks that are equidistance from the center have the same magnetic polarity and age. By the use of radiometric age dating and studying fossil ages it was also found out the rocks of the sea floor age is younger than the continental rocks. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. Scientists can determine the age of the seafloor by examining the changing magnetic field of our planet.

Every so often it has occurred over 170 times over the past 100 million years the poles will suddenly switch. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. This has happened many times throughout earth s history. The age spreading rate and asymmetry at each grid node is determined by linear interpolation between adjacent seafloor isochrons in the direction of spreading.

The oldest sediments so far recovered by a variety of methods including coring dredging and deep sea drilling date only to the jurassic period not exceeding about 200 million years in age. Measurements of the thickness of marine sediments and absolute age determinations of such bottom material have provided additional evidence for seafloor spreading. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. 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.

Very little of the sea floor is older than 150 million years. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process. Evidence for seafloor spreading nature of oceanic rocks around mid ocean ridges.