Sea Floor Spreading Diagram Rift Valley

The process begins when the crust is heated from beneath by upwelling in the mantle sometimes called a mantle plume.

Sea floor spreading diagram rift valley.

Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. Many existing continental rift valleys are the result of a failed arm of a triple junction although there are two the east african rift and the baikal. Such a fault is a fracture in the terrestrial surface in which the rock material on the upper side of the fault plane has been displaced downward relative to the rock. The most extensive rift valley is located along the crest of the mid ocean ridge system and is the result of sea floor spreading examples of this type of rift include the mid atlantic ridge and the east pacific rise.

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. Rift valley any elongated trough formed by the subsidence of a segment of the earth s crust between dip slip or normal faults. The gulf of aden. This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century.

Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. Seafloor spreading occurs along mid ocean ridges large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor. 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. Views from space of the arabian plate the red sea and the gulf of aden brand new sea floor spreading in the red sea from a long ago rift valley.

From rift valley to linear sea to mid ocean ridge with sea floor spreading. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where earth s tectonic plates move apart or rift rift valleys are found both on land and at the bottom of the ocean where they are created by the process of seafloor spreading rift valleys differ from river valleys and glacial valleys in that they are created by tectonic activity and not the process of erosion. This creates a three armed rift called a triple junction usually with each rift at a.