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I need it to be informative an din a way so that I can understand how come.

2007-03-25 12:48:25 · 3 answers · asked by :) 4 in Science & Mathematics Earth Sciences & Geology

3 answers

Well sea floor spreading happens when magma from under the earth's crust escapes and goes into the ocean where it rapidly cools down and forms new ocean crust. While it does this it pushes the older crust out of the way, hence the term seafloor spreading. This is different from continental drift, which is when the tectonic plates shift around a little bit (that happens because the crust is broken up into plates that float around on the mantle).

2007-03-25 12:57:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Continental drift was the early theory of plate tectonics before it was actually discovered. Proposed by Alfred Wegener, he believed the continents were moving (which he was right but didn't know how to prove it). Years later, the theory of plate tectonics emerged from the continental drift theory. Plate tectonics is the movement of the tectonic plates of the lithosphere moving relative to one another.
Seafloor spreading occurs at mid-ocean ridges where two plates are being slowly forced apart by volcanic activity.

As the post above stated... you can kind of think that seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the plate tectonic theory.

2007-03-25 18:11:12 · answer #2 · answered by Amanda 4 · 0 0

You can think of continental drift as being the result of seafloor spreading. In some areas new sea floor is created, while in others it's destroyed; the continents drift as a result.

2007-03-25 12:57:54 · answer #3 · answered by William S 3 · 0 0

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