Se Sea Floor Spreading Research Paper

Tectonic Plates are what cause many of earths natural disasters. These can come in forms such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. The earthquake of San Francisco was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the earths history and had ended in tragedy (Quinton et al, 2012, p189). These tectonic plates also resulted in the change of earths continents. More than 200 million years ago, all of Earth’s continents were combined into one super continent called Pangea. This continent slowly separated into 7 others we know of today (Quinton et al, 2012, p176). There are many known theories to why the Earth’s continents have changed overtime, such as the Continental Drift and Seafloor Spreading theories. These two theories help to explain the worlds creation, one of the most unknown mysteries of today.

Sea Floor Spreading is one of the theories that explains how the Earth’s continents have changed overtime.

This theory was created by Harry Hess, a geologist that worked with the military studying the seafloor, in 1960. To back up his theory, he has discovered evidence of a Mid-Atlantic range found deep within the ocean (Quinton et al, 2012, p77). Sea Floor Spreading is a process that occurs at mid ocean ridges, where a new oceanic crust is formed and is pushed away from the ridge, it is a geological process in which the lithosphere split apart from each other (NationalGeographic, 1996). The Mid-Ocean ridge is a continuous chain of volcanoes where lava erupts, creating the crust of the earth (divediscover, 2005). The hot magma that rises up through the mid ocean ridge forms a new oceanic crust, where it is pushed away, therefore, explaining how the continents have moved overtime otherwise known as the continental drift theory, another well known theory that scientists and geologists use to explain how the Earth’s continents have changed overtime (Socratic,

2016).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Alfered Wegener, a German Meteorologist, proposed the theory of continental drift. His idea was that all of the Earth’s continents were once combined into a super continent millions of years ago. He backed up his theory with the discovery of similar fossils and rocks found in different continents but had a great distance between them (bbc.co, 2014). Abraham Ortellius noted that the coastline of the continents fit together, Nicolaus Steno propose the Law Of Superposition: each layer of rock was older than the layer above it, James Hutton used Nicolaus’s theory to compare rock layers. This group of people all contributed to help Alfered Wegener to generate the theory that all of these continents were once joined into a super continent called Pangea.

The Earth’s continents have drastically changed over the course of millions of years. The theory proposed by Alfered Wegener was that the Earth’s continents were once combined into one super continent known as Pangea (Quinton, et al, 2012, p.176). He stated that over the course of millions of years, it slowly broke up into the seperate continents we have today, also known as the continental drift. Scientists and Geologists such as Harry Hess expanded on Wegener’s theory, explaining that the continents moved due not only to continental drift , but also because of Sea Floor Spreading. These theories, along with multiple others, help to explain one of the Earth’s longest mysteries, how did the continents change over time.