Age Of Atlantic Ocean Floor

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Age of atlantic ocean floor. Based on ages of the oldest rocks in the north and south atlantic describe how and when the atlantic ocean formed and how its shape has changed through time. The detail of such submarine terrain as continental slopes abyssal plains and the mighty mid atlantic ridge is stunning. For that geologists date and study continental crust. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

Because of this the youngest sea floor can be found along divergent boundaries such as the mid atlantic ocean ridge. Relief of the ocean floor. The dots are 5000 km apart and the green color of the ocean floor indicates that they are 100 million years old. It covers approximately 20 percent of earth s surface and about 29 percent of its water surface area.

This distinctive physical map of the atlantic ocean floor appeared on national geographic as a supplement to the map of the atlantic. The second largest ocean on earth the atlantic drives our weather patterns including hurricanes and is home to many species from sea turtles to dolphins. 6 by knowing the age of the ocean floor and the distance from the ridge you can calculate plate motion along the mid atlantic ridge which is also the spreading rate. Visualize how the atlantic ocean floor started separating the continents and grew to its present size.

Find the two black dots in the atlantic ocean. This dataset shows the age of the ocean floor along with the labeled tectonic plates and boundaries. This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.

The outstanding feature of the atlantic floor is the mid atlantic ridge an immense median mountain range extending throughout the length of the atlantic claiming the centre third of the ocean bed and reaching roughly 1 000 miles 1 600 km in breadth. It separates the old world from the new world the atlantic ocean occupies an elongated s shaped basin extending longitudinally between europe and africa to the east. Therefore seafloor dating isn t that useful for studying plate motions beyond the cretaceous. Because of this correlation between age and subduction potential very little ocean floor is older than 125 million years and almost none of it is older than 200 million years.