Magnetization of the Sea Floor and Seafloor Spreading
See related animation:
Seafloor Spreading Other animations related to plate tectonics
Animation Source:
Earthguide at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Seafloor Spreading Other animations related to plate tectonics
Animation Source:
Earthguide at Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Questions for thought
- The paleomagnetic stripes on the seafloor for a pattern that looks like a bar code. What kind of pattern makes it easiest to identify the age of a particular patch of seafloor - where the pattern include many stripes or few stripes over the same width?
- What two factors are involved in setting the width of a paleomagnetic stripe?
- What's happening to the Earth's magnetic field to make paleomagnetic stripes on the seafloor?
- If you could illuminate the seafloor, what would paleomagnetic stripes look like?