Age Of Ocean Floor Map
Images and animations depicting the crustal age of the ocean floor created by the noaa national centers for environmental information ncei from bathymetric topographic and marine geological and geophysical data.
Age of ocean floor map. For that geologists date and study continental crust. The cracks created by the uplifting fill with pressurized lava that cools and solidifies as new crust. Image taken from here. We ve come a long way in ocean exploration since the days of the hms challenger launched in 1858.
The data are described in a data and analysis note in the journal of geophysical research 1997 entitled digital isochrons of the world s ocean floor. The problem with that approach is that our oceans are vast and ships are small meaning only a tiny percentage of the ocean floor between 5 15 percent nasa estimates was mapped. New sea floor map for google earth january 13 2016 in late 2014 we had a look at a map of the ocean floor published by the scripps institution of oceanography university of california san diego. 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.
Therefore seafloor dating isn t that useful for studying plate motions beyond the cretaceous. Contours of 20 million years are available as a layer that is currently set to invisible. Ige table 5r below indicates the entire surface of the planet is rising outwardly at the present accelerating rate of 2 85 cm each year 6378 96 km. To complete a map of earth s ocean floor you ve got to take to the high seas by boat.
Seafloor age millions of years 0 20 40 60 80 0 8 this map builds on the tectonic plates map by adding seafloor age data. This dataset shows the age of the ocean floor along with the labeled tectonic plates and boundaries. The 1977 world ocean floor map created by bruce heezen and marie tharp. The data is from four companion digital models of the age age uncertainty spreading rates and spreading asymmetries of the world s ocean basins.
Sio reference series 93 30 scripps institution of oceanography. Note that the youngest seafloor ages are found at the mid ocean spreading ridges where new rock is constantly coming up from under the crust to heal the rifts formed as tectonic plates move away from one another. The magma located under the solid crust is lifting the continents and the ocean floor s.