Sea Floor Subduction

The process of subduction.

Sea floor subduction.

Subduction in the form of gravitational slab pull is thought to be the largest force driving plate tectonics. At subduction zones the edge of the denser plate subducts or slides beneath the less dense one. 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. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be.

Subduction is a geological process that takes place at convergent boundaries of tectonic plates where one plate moves under another and is forced to sink due to high gravitational potential energy into the mantle. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. For instance the atlantic ocean is believed to be expanding because of its few trenches. Plate tectonics plate tectonics seafloor spreading.

The process by which ocean floor sinks beneath a deep ocean trench and back into the mantle is called subduction sub duk shun. Subduction happens where tectonic plates crash into each other instead of spreading apart. Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push. The denser lithospheric material then melts back into the earth s mantle.

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 report describes how to build a model of the outer 300 km 180 miles of the earth that can be used to develop a better understanding of the principal features of plate tectonics including sea floor spreading the pattern of magnetic stripes frozen into the sea floor transform faulting thrust faulting subduction and volcanism. Sea floor spreading and subduction work together. For earthquakes larger than a magnitude 7 5 this can cause a tsunami a giant sea wave by suddenly moving the seafloor.

A descending plate is usually referred to as a slab where very old seafloor is being subducted the slab falls almost straight down and where younger plates are being subducted the slab descends at a shallow angle. Seafloor spreading is just one part of plate tectonics. Subduction and sea floor spreading are processes that could alter the size and form of the ocean. Regions where this process occurs are known as subduction zones rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year with the average rate of convergence being.