Is earthquake causes the seafloor to spread?

Source: Tectonics Much like the way humans constantly generate new skin cells, the bottom of the ocean regularly forms fresh layers of seafloor. Volcanic activity causes the seafloor to spread along oceanic ridges, forming new areas of crust and mantle. This contraction can trigger oceanic earthquakes.

How do differences in density and temperature cause sea-floor spreading and subduction?

The cooler denser mantle sinks causing subduction and the hotter mantle rises to the surface causing sea floor spreading.

What type of landforms does subduction cause?

Various formations such as mountain ranges, islands, and trenches are caused by subduction and the volcanoes and earthquakes it triggers. In addition to causing earthquakes, subduction can also trigger tsunamis. When the older plate is holding a continent however, it does not sink, which is reassuring.

What causes the subduction of one of the oceanic plates?

When an oceanic and a continental plate collide, eventually the oceanic plate is subducted under the continental plate due to the high density of the oceanic plate. As time goes on the hot magma rising upward from the subduction zone causes further compression of the mountain belt.

How does sea floor spreading cause subduction?

It happens on both sides of the ridge, so the sea floor is spreading in both directions. This is how new oceanic crust is created. Old oceanic crust must be recycled, and as the sea floor collides with a continental plate, the oceanic crust tends to dive under the thicker plate in what they s called a subduction zone.

What are the steps of seafloor spreading?

Sea-floor spreading is the process in which the ocean floor is extended when two plates move apart. As the plates move apart, the rocks break and form a crack between the plates. Earthquakes occur along the plate boundary. Magma rises through the cracks and seeps out onto the ocean floor like a long,…

What are facts about seafloor spreading?

Molten material. Hess’s discovery on the warmer temperature near the mid-Atlantic ridge when he began the ocean mapping,led to his evidence about the molten material underneath the ocean.

Seafloor drill. The seafloor drilling system led to the evidence that supports the seafloor-spreading hypothesis.

Radiometric age dating and fossil ages.

What is the process of sea floor spreading?

Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Sea floor spreading can stop during the process, but if it continues to the point that the continent is completely severed, then a new ocean basin is created.