Hess its major tenets gave great support to the theory of continental drift continental drift.
Theory of seafloor spreading is supported by.
In this lesson you will learn about this important.
Supporters of continental drift originally theorize d that the continents moved drifted through unmoving oceans.
A veritable legion of evidence supports the seafloor spreading hypothesis.
Theory of plate tectonics when the concept of seafloor spreading came along scientists recognized that it was the mechanism to explain how continents could move around earth s surface.
Keeping earth in shape.
Its discovery provided a mechanism for continental drift that alfred wegener could not explain.
Seafloor spreading proves that the ocean itself is a site of tectonic activity.
This evidence was from the investigations of the molten material seafloor drilling radiometric age dating and fossil ages and the magnetic stripes.
Since then it has been shown that the motion of the continents is linked to seafloor spreading by the theory of plate tectonics.
First proposed in the early 1960s by the american geologist harry h.
Seafloor spreading is a part of plate tectonics.
This evidence however was also used to support the theory of continental drift.
Harry hess s hypothesis about seafloor spreading had collected several pieces of evidence to support the theory.
Like the scientists before us we will now merge the ideas of continental drift and seafloor spreading into the theory of plate tectonics.
The driver for seafloor spreading in plates with active margins is the weight of the cool dense subducting slabs that pull them along or slab pull.