ppt课件-plate tectonics- bedford public schools（板块构造-贝德福德公立学校）.pptVIP

Breakup of Pangaea Mid-Ocean Ridge Beginning in the 1950s, a wealth of new evidence emerged to revive the debate about Wegeners theories. Mid-Ocean Ridge The Mid-Ocean Ridge is the longest mountain chain in the world. Scientists have used sonar to map the Mid-Ocean Ridge. Harry Hess Harry Hess was an American geologist who studied the Mid-Ocean Ridge. Seafloor Spreading Hess proposed that the ocean floors move like conveyor belts, carrying the continents along with them. Seafloor Spreading Several types of evidence from the oceans supported Hess’s theory of seafloor spreading: Evidence from Molten Material Using a submersible named Alvin, scientists were able observe molten material along the Mid-Ocean Ridge. Evidence from Magnetic Stripes Beginning in the 1950s, scientists, using magnetic instruments (magnetometers), began recognizing odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor. Magnetic Reversals When scientists recorded the magnetic memory of the rocks on both sides of the Mid-Ocean Ridge, they discovered that a stripe of rock that show’s when Earth’s magnetic field pointed north is followed by a parallel strip of rock that shows when the magnetic field pointed south. Evidence from Drilling Samples In 1968 a drilling ship called The Glomar Challenger collected rock samples from the ocean floor. So...if the sea floor is getting wider… Actually, the ocean floor doesn’t keep spreading out. Subduction at Deep-Ocean Trenches Subduction is the process by which the ocean floor sinks beneath a deep-ocean trench and back into the mantle. New oceanic crust is hot. As it moves away from the mid-ocean ridge, it cools and becomes more dense. The Pacific Ocean is getting smaller. More ocean crust is being subducted into deep ocean trenches in the Pacific than can be created at the mid-ocean ridge. * * Specifically, oceanic exploration greatly expanded. This underwater mountain chain is called the Mid-Ocean Ridge. Data gathered by oceanographic surveys cond