Sea-floor spreading is the process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor. Molten material rises up from the mantle at mid-ocean ridges and erupts, pushing the oceanic plates apart as it cools and forms new crust. Evidence for sea-floor spreading includes pillow basalts and magnetic stripe patterns in the ocean crust that record reversals in Earth's magnetic field. Drilling samples also show that rocks get progressively older farther from mid-ocean ridges. Subduction is the process where oceanic plates plunge back into the mantle at deep-sea trenches, allowing the ocean floor to continuously renew itself over hundreds of millions of years.