Science question...?

Question

How can the ocean floor keep getting wider and wider with the earth staying the same size?

Answer 1

Continental drift. The Atlantic is getting wider, but the Pacific is getting smaller.

Answer 2

The ocean floor can only get wider if the polar ice melts and covers more land. As with other discussions on this, where you have continental plates expanding there are others that are being sublimated or rolled under. No additional ocean floor is created, just moved from one place to another.

Answer 3

There are zones of convergence and zones of divergence in the ocean. Meaning that some parts of the ocean floor are getting wider and wider, yet other parts are getting smaller and smaller.

Answer 4

You are talking about "sea floor spreading". This happens at mid ocean ridges. It's the most fundamental way new surface arises for our planet, creating new crust all the time.

It is matched by the processes that remove crust----subduction at continental plate boundaries----present crust "sliding under" other crust that is there now.

Answer 5

I assume you are referring to the Atlantic Ocean's mid-atlantic ridge. The North American Plates and the European plates are moving away from each other since Pangea existed. There are other plates, like the one right off of Japan, that are converging and going under one another. Thus, we have earthquakes and sunamis. Just so you know, George Bush didn't cause the sunami off of Sumatra.

Answer 6

Continental drift. The ocean floor is constantly be destroyed and reborn.

Answer 7

it was the simple concept of plate tectonics. if one area the spreading occur ie. constructive boundaries in the other area there will be distrutive boundaries. The balance between them will keep the eart to stay of same size.

Answer 8

due to Plate tectonic theory,
ocean become spreading and
same time moutains/hills are formed.
so total area do not change