What analogy did wegener use to describe how continents move through the ocean floor.
The continents and ocean floor are on lithospheric plates.
Theory that lithospheric plates move and interact.
Briefly describe the view most geologists had about ocean basins and continents prior to the 1960s.
The north american and eurasian tectonic plates for example are separated by the mid atlantic ridge.
Plate tectonics and the ocean floor bathymetry the shape of the ocean floor is largely a result of a process called plate tectonics.
List the seven largest lithospheric plates.
Hypothesis that earth s continents move on the earth s surface.
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 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.
American pacific african eurasian australian indian and antarctic.
Plates that are not subducting are driven by gravity sliding off the elevated mid ocean ridges a process called ridge push.
The two continents are moving away from each other at the rate of about 2 5 centimeters 1 inch per year.