Magnetic Stripes On The Sea Floor Are Created Where

It does however provide evidence that sea floor spreading occurs and hence is evidence for the theory of plate tectonics.

Magnetic stripes on the sea floor are created where.

9 10 this results in broadly evident stripes from which the past magnetic field polarity can be inferred from data gathered with a magnetometer towed on the sea surface or from an aircraft. These patterns were unlike any seen for continental rocks. Magnetic reversals found in the sea floor do not cause continental drift. Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor.

Plate tectonics and reversals of the earth s magnetic field are responsible for the magnetic stripes found on the ocean floor. Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe like magnetic patterns for the rocks of the ocean floor. Basalt forming at the ridge crest picks up the existing magnetic polarity. These surveys revealed a series of invisible magnetic stripes of normal and reversed polarity in the sea floor like that shown in the figure below.

When magma flows out of a mid ocean ridge small magnetic minerals in the magma align themselves to point in the direction of the earth s current magnetic north. What they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around mid ocean ridges was divided into matching stripes on either side of the.