The Continents And Ocean Floor Are On Lithospheric Plates

These plates move relative to each other typically at rates of 5 to 10 cm 2 to 4 inches per year and interact along their boundaries where they converge diverge or slip past one another.

The continents and ocean floor are on lithospheric plates.

The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2 5 centimeters 1 inch per year. Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push. The lithosphere is broken up into seven very large continental and ocean sized plates six or seven medium sized regional plates and several small ones. What analogy did wegener use to describe how continents move through the ocean floor.

American pacific african eurasian australian indian and antarctic. The north american and eurasian tectonic plates for example are separated by the mid atlantic ridge. Briefly describe the view most geologists had about ocean basins and continents prior to the 1960s. The motivating force for seafloor spreading ridges is tectonic plate slab pull at subduction zones rather than magma pressure although there is typically significant magma activity at spreading ridges.

List the seven largest lithospheric plates. The outer rocky layer of the earth includes about a dozen large sections called tectonic plates that are arranged like a spherical jig saw puzzle floating on top of the earth s hot flowing mantle. Plate tectonics and the ocean floor bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics.