Plate Tectonics And Sea Floor Spreading

“Continents are continually being shaped and reshaped by competing constructive and deconstructive geological processes” (vessel,2012) Over the past billion years the Earth has changed tremendously. It all started 225 million years ago with the one continent known as Pangea, to now knowing of seven. This is all connected to the theory of plate tectonics. Plate tectonics is the theory that the lithosphere is divided into many plates that move constantly across the surface of the earth. This causes many natural disasters such as tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanos. There are many known theories to why the position of Earth's continents has changed over time such as the continental drift and sea floor spreading.

The continental drift Ione of

The purpose of these studies was to understand the sea floor and to find hiding places for both Allied and enemy submarines. The studies involved measuring the depth to the sea floor. Harry Hess worked with the army studying geology and sea floor spreading. Sea floor spreading is a well-known theory that explains why the position of earths continents has moved over time. (National Geographic, 2016). The theory was first written by the geologist Harry Hess. He developed the idea in 1960, oceanic crust forms along mid ocean ridges and that the hot magma rises up though the mid ocean ridge and cools rapidly pushing away other cooled magma spreading continents apart. A mid ocean ridge can also be known as an underwater mountain range. The evidence he provided was from the discovery of the mid-Atlantic ridge found within the Atlantic Ocean. Sea floor spreading is the idea of new sea floor being created through mid-ocean ridges. Wegener proposed that the continents themselves move, which is untrue. It is the tectonic plates that move. Seafloor spreading caused the break up of Pangea, which prompted Alfred Wegener to add this in support of his continental drift theory. (American Museum, n.d) Finally Frederick J Vine, Drummond Matthews, and Laurence Morley were the final founders of the current sea floor spreading theory. (Penn State, n.d.). This was the evidence Hess needed to prove his theory."(Burkeley,