2007-09-30 16:37:23 · 4 answers · asked by otherwisefallen 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Next to the continents. Sea floor spreading forms new basalt at the tectonic plate margins, such as in the center of the Atlantic, so the oldest seafloor rocks are against the coasts of North America and Europe.
2007-09-30 18:49:56 · answer #1 · answered by Howard H 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe the oldest dated rocks (a few hundred million years old) of existing sea floor are found on the west side of the Pacific, far from the spreading centers that are located near the Americas.The absence of really old ocean floor was a key point leading geoscientists to accept the plate tectonic theory back in the early sixties, along with the mirroring of ages of the seafloor to the sides of the mid-ocean ridges and the progressive aging of the floor away from the ridges in both directions.
It may be that you wish to know the oldest dated rocks that are thought to have formed on the sea floor but are not found there at the present time. Rocks in Greenland, Canada, and Australia formed as ocean floor but now incorporated into continents are the oldest dated rocks that I know of and I think are dated to 3.5 to 3.7 billion years. Older rocks may have been found more recently than my outdated information.
2007-10-01 08:55:20 · answer #2 · answered by busterwasmycat 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plate tectonics
Atlantis
Atlantic Sea Floor
Basalt
2007-09-30 23:54:51 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
top of mountains?...seems to me that the older rocks from the seafloor would be those lifted in the creation of the great mountain chains....
2007-10-01 08:29:38 · answer #4 · answered by meanolmaw 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋