Magma rises from the Earth's interior along mid-ocean ridges, cooling and forming new seafloor. According to the theory of seafloor spreading, sediments should be thicker and older further from ridges, where the seafloor is younger near ridges and ages farther away. Drilling in the 1960s validated this by finding thicker, older sediments located farther from ridge centers, consistent with the fossil record.

1. SEAFLOOR
SPREADING

2. He found out that magma oozed up from
the Earth`s interior along mid-oceanic
ridges and this eventually solidified and
form new seafloor.

3. The concept of seafloor spreading
suggests that sediments overlying the
seafloor should be thicker and older
compared to those overlying new formed
seafloor.

4. Although the evidence presented by
Wegener are compatible with the concept
of Pangaea,the theory was rejected by the
geologists because Wegener could not
provide a believable mechanism to explain
how Pangaea broke apart.

5. Scientists/Paleontologists found out that
the seafloor is youngest in areas near the
mid-oceanic ridge,and becomes older as it
goes farther away on either side.

6. Another evidence that strongly supports
seafloor spreading was seen in the
thickness and age of the sediments that
were directly overlying the basalts in the
mid-oceanic ridges.

7. This was validated by the results of the drilling
done in the late 1960`s, which showed that
the sediments are gradually becoming thicker
and older,as suggested by the fossil
records,with increasing distance away from
the center of the ridges.

8. In 1962,Harry Hammond Hess,an
American geologist who conducted echo-
sounding surveys on the ocean
floor,published his findings in his
article,”The History or the Ocean Basins”

9. THANK YOU 