The Rocks On The Ocean Floor Are Magnetic

Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe like magnetic patterns for the rocks of the ocean floor.

The rocks on the ocean floor are magnetic. The oldest rocks on the ocean floor are 200 mya very young when compared with the oldest continental rocks which date from 3 8 billion years ago. This is how scientists get the age of the seafloor. Magnetic striping magnetic minerals are found in rocks. The ocean floor is mainly made up of basalt which is formed as a result of underwater volcanic activity.

Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around. Magnetic direction of rock changes as earth s magnetic poles drift. Magma acquires the magnetic direction present on earth when it hardens into rock 3. These stripes of normal and reverse magnetic fields with different sizes can be matched with the geomagnetic reversals records obtained from continental rocks already dated.

The volcanic and sedimentary rocks record the paleomagnetism at the time when that part of the ocean floor was created. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. The fraction of a rocks overall magnetization that is a viscous remanent magnetization is dependent on the magnetic mineralogy. Basalts contain magnetic minerals which get aligned in the direction of the magnetic field when the rock solidifies.

When magma flows out of a mid ocean ridge small magnetic minerals in the magma align themselves to point in the direction of the earth s current magnetic north. Identify the factors that cause magnetic stripes to form along the ocean floor. Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor. This evidence led scientists to look again at wegener s hypothesis of continental drift.

These two things were the magnetic striping on the ocean floor and the age of seafloor rocks. These patterns were unlike any seen for continental rocks. A symmetrical pattern of positive and negative magnetic lines emanates from the mid ocean ridge. New rock is formed by magma at the mid ocean ridges and the ocean floor spreads out from this point.

Several types of evidence supported hess s theory of sea floor spreading. Evidence from molten material. Select the two correct answers. Plate tectonics and reversals of the earth s magnetic field are responsible for the magnetic stripes found on the ocean floor.

Evidence for sea floor spreading. Paleomagnetic procedure collecting samples on land. Magnetic striping of the sea floor after mid ocean ridges and trenches were discovered more evidence was discovered that helped to support the theory that the continents had moved around. Plates move as new rock forms which causes magnetic direction to skew away.