Diagram Of Ocean Floor Spreading Connected By Tranform

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level.

Diagram of ocean floor spreading connected by tranform.

A transform fault or transform boundary is a fault along a plate boundary where the motion is predominantly horizontal. The ocean floor has the same general character as the land areas of the world. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur. Exploration of the seafloor and the earth s crust.

Along these boundaries earthquakes are common and magma molten. Most such faults are found in oceanic crust where they accommodate the lateral offset between segments of divergent boundaries forming a zigzag. 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. A transform fault may occur in the portion of a fracture zone that exists between different offset spreading centres or that connects spreading centres to deep sea trenches in.

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. It ends abruptly where it connects to another plate boundary either another transform a spreading ridge or a subduction zone. The earth s lithosphere which includes the crust and upper mantle is made up of a series of pieces or tectonic plates that move slowly over time. Thus for fast spreading centers the ridge stands at higher elevations than for slow spreading centers.

Sea floor topography is controlled by the age of the oceanic lithosphere and the rate of spreading. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Transform fault in geology and oceanography a type of fault in which two tectonic plates slide past one another.

The continents bordering the atlantic ocean for example are believed to be moving away from the mid atlantic ridge at a rate of 1 2 cm 0 4 0 8 inch per year thus increasing. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. If the spreading rate relative velocity is high magma must be rising rapidly and the lithosphere is relatively hot beneath the ridge. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates.

Mountains plains channels canyons exposed rocks and sediment covered areas. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet. This spreading creates a successively younger ocean floor and the flow of material is thought to bring about the migration or drifting apart of the continents. Other articles where ocean floor is discussed.