Sea Floor Spreading Divergent Boundary

Because of this the youngest sea floor can be found along divergent boundaries such as the mid atlantic ocean ridge.

Sea floor spreading divergent boundary.

As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other heat from the mantle s convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense. Magma rises up from the mantle and oozes out from the cracks like a long thin undersea volcano. When a divergent boundary occurs beneath oceanic lithosphere the rising convection current below lifts the lithosphere producing a mid ocean ridge. As two tectonic plates slowly separate molten material rises up from within the mantle to fill the opening.

The spreading however is generally not uniform causing linear features perpendicular to the divergent boundaries. Divergent plate boundaries two plates move apart upwelling of hot material from the mantle to create new seafloor 2 4 list three types of plate boundaries and describe the relative motion at each of them. When the fissure opens pressure is reduced on the super heated mantle material below. Does sea floor spreading occur at a convergent boundary answers no.

This dataset shows the age of the ocean floor along with the labeled tectonic plates and boundaries. On earth magma forms by partial melting of silicate rocks either in the mantle continental or oceanic crust. The less dense material rises often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor. In this way the rugged volcanic landscape of a mid ocean ridge is created along the plate boundary.

As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading. Extensional forces stretch the lithosphere and produce a deep fissure. Seafloor spreading is the usual process at work at divergent plate boundaries leading to the creation of new ocean floor. For example andesitic magmatism associated with the formation of island arcs at convergent plate boundaries or basaltic magmatism at mid ocean ridges during sea floor spreading at divergent plate boundaries.

As the oceanic plates move apart they produce cracks in the ocean floor. Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates vary from about 0 1 cm 0 04 inch per year to 17 cm 6 7 inches per year. Divergent boundaries also form volcanic islands which occur when the plates move apart to produce gaps that molten lava rises to fill.

Most active divergent plate boundaries occur between oceanic plates and exist as mid oceanic ridges. Divergent boundaries in the middle of the oceans cause seafloor spreading.