Sea Floor Spreading Diagram Rift Valley

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.

Sea floor spreading diagram rift valley. Seafloor 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. 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. 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. Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading.

The gulf of aden. 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. The process begins when the crust is heated from beneath by upwelling in the mantle sometimes called a mantle plume. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow.

Rift valley any elongated trough formed by the subsidence of a segment of the earth s crust between dip slip or normal faults. From rift valley to linear sea to mid ocean ridge with sea floor spreading. This creates a three armed rift called a triple junction usually with each rift at a. Seafloor spreading is a constant geologic phenomenon and a primary driver of continental drift.

Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones and spreads out laterally away from them. A rift valley is a linear shaped lowland between several highlands or mountain ranges created by the action of a geologic rift or fault. 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.