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The geologic
feature that the Ocean Ridge parallel is the vast oceanic ridge
system that encircles the earth along the tectonic plate
boundaries. Additionally, beneath the ridges are volcanic
eruptions.
4. How is alternating magnetic polarity recorded in rocks at ocean
ridges?
groups?
Sea floor spreading is the process of both the creation and destruction
of the ocean basin. At the axis of the mid ocean ridge, new ocean floor
is created. This new ocean floor is pushed away from the axis and new
strips of ocean floor are replaced by the swelling of volcanic matter.
While new ocean floor is being created, it is also being destroyed.
Ocean floor is destroyed in deep ocean trenches where the plates
undergo subduction; which is when the edge of the plate moves
downward or sideways under another plate. The process of sea floor
spreading supports the idea of continental drift and the deformation of
Pangea. Scientists speculate that in 250 million years from now, the
continents will once again mash into each other, minus Antarctica and
Australia, and create Pangea Ultima.
spreading?
The fathometer, or echo sounder, sends signals of sound, or a ping,
which bounces off of the sea floor and is transmitted from a ship on
the water. Depending on the elevation under the water, the ping takes
longer to return when there is a lower sea floor, and faster when the
seafloor is closer to the surface of water. This is because water is an
excellent transmitter of sound, and therefore this method is reliable
enough to support the idea of seafloor spreading; if the same
coordinate is tested via fathometer upon separate occasions and
measures a different result, the seafloor has spread and resulted in a
varying elevation than previously observed via the fathometer AKA
echo sounder (Trujillo & Thurman 76).
This method was inspired by WWI in which the echo sounder was used
to sense submarines. More recently, scholars have further confirmed
seafloor spreading using Satellites from space (Trujillo & Thurman 78).
Trujillo, Alan P. and Thurman, Harold V. Essentials of
Oceanography. 2014.
(Kerry Kurcz)
2. What are turbidity currents?
Turbidity currents are like underwater avalanches of muddy water, rocks,
and other debris that may be underwater(to make it easier to imagine,
it is similar to a flash flood on land). The currents can be initiate by
natural disasters such as an earthquake or a hurricane passing by,
however, it is not constrained to only that. As sea floor materials move
across the continental shelf into the head of a submarine canyon, the
mixture of debris and mud falls downslope due to the force of gravity.
The currents can get so strong that they can transport huge rocks down
submarine canyons. It also causes erosion over time.
3. What is marine Snow?
Marine snow is the constant falling of dead organic material from the
upper parts of water to the lower parts of the ocean. It is a source of
food for organisms living in aphotic (without light) areas of the ocean. Howard Ho
http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/marine-snow-staple-deep
4. Where are the majority of ocean trenches located?
Ocean trenches are steep depressions in the deepest parts of the ocean
where old ocean crust from one tectonic plate is pushed beneath
another plate, raising mountains, causing earthquakes, and forming
volcanoes on the seafloor and on land.
5. Where are abyssal plains locations? How thick are they?
Abyssal plains are located in the seafloor 10,000 to 20,000 feet deep.
The thickness depends on where and what type of plain it is. The Sohm
Plain in North Atlantic has an area of 350,000 square miles. The largest
and most common plains are located in the Atlantic Ocean. Abyssal
plains can also accumulate sediment that can reach up to one kilometre
in thickness.
6.How do ocean basins form? Basins are formed in the ocean by
separation of tectonic plates at the spreading plate margins. An ocean
basin is an region below sea level. An ocean basin can be active in
which a lot of new structures are built, or inactive where the surface is
slow to change. Plate tectonics is the theory used to explain the
dynamics of the earth's surface resulting from the interaction of
overlying rigid plates with the underlying mantle. When plates spread
apart, it creates gaps where hot molten rock (magma) from the earth's
mantle rises up. When the magma slips through the gaps, it solidifies as
it cools creating a new layer of ocean crust.
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