These two things were the magnetic striping on the ocean floor and the age of seafloor rocks.
Magnetic striping of ocean floor.
Navy and the scripps institution of oceanography tows the first marine magnetometer and finds magnetic striping on the seafloor off the west coast.
Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor.
Discovery of magnetic striping on ocean floor.
The discovery adds a key element to the theory of plate tectonics.
Each strip therefore represents an epoch of one or the other magnetic polarity and the symmetry is also explained.
Magnetic evidence for seafloor spreading explains how magnetic polarity frozen into seafloor basalts reveals evidence for the creation of new seafloor at mid ocean ridges.
It is as if the sea floor was a giant tape recorder with twin tapes emerging from the mid atlantic ridge recording the earth s magnetism at the time they emerge and then traveling in opposite directions.
The discovery of magnetic striping called for an explanation.
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.
Basalt the once molten rock that makes up most new oceanic crust is a fairly magnetic substance and scientists began using magnetometers to measure the magnetism of the ocean floor in the 1950s what they discovered was that the magnetism of the ocean floor around.
Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe like magnetic patterns for the rocks of the ocean floor.
Coast and geodetic survey ship pioneer in a joint project with the u s.
Magnetic striping and polar reversals beginning in the 1950s scientists using magnetic instruments magnetometers adapted from airborne devices developed during world war ii to detect submarines began recognizing odd magnetic variations across the ocean floor.
This finding though unexpected.
Magnetic striping of the sea floor after mid ocean ridges and trenches were discovered more evidence was discovered that helped to support the theory that the continents had moved around.
The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century.
These patterns were unlike any seen for continental rocks.
