What did Robert S Dietz discover?

What did Robert S Dietz discover?

Dietz’s discovery in 1952 of the first fracture zone in the Pacific, which he related to deformation of the Earth’s crust, led him to hypothesize that new crustal material is formed at oceanic ridges and spreads outward at a rate of several centimetres per year. Subsequent work confirmed this suggestion.

What did Hess and Dietz do?

Hess and Robert S. Dietz suggested that new ocean crust was formed along mid-oceanic ridges between separating continents; and second, Drummond H. Matthews and Frederick J.

Who is the American geologist who introduced the concept of seafloor spreading together with Robert Dietz in the 1960s?

The idea that the seafloor itself moves and also carries the continents with it as it spreads from a central rift axis was proposed by Harold Hammond Hess from Princeton University and Robert Dietz of the U.S. Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego in the 1960s. The phenomenon is known today as plate tectonics.

Who discovered seafloor spreading?

Harry Hess
Harry Hess: One of the Discoverers of Seafloor Spreading.

What is the seafloor spreading theory?

Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates—large slabs of Earth’s lithosphere—split apart from each other. Seafloor spreading and other tectonic activity processes are the result of mantle convection. Mantle convection is the slow, churning motion of Earth’s mantle.

Who mapped out the ocean floor in 1952?

Tharp and Heezen began mapping the individual ocean floors in 1952, but found obstacles in their way.

What did Harry Hammond Hess realize?

Hess discovered that the oceans were shallower in the middle and identified the presence of Mid Ocean Ridges, raised above the surrounding generally flat sea floor (abyssal plain) by as much as 1.5 km.

Who discovered the mid-ocean ridge?

That ridge, it was later discovered, extended through the major oceans of the world. It is now called the Mid-Ocean Ridge. In 1953, American physicists Maurice Ewing (1906-1974) and Bruce Heezen (1924-1977) discovered that through this underwater mountain range ran a deep canyon.

Who proposed seafloor spreading theory?

Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor.

How old is the oldest ocean floor?

about 340 million years old
The oldest patch of undisturbed oceanic crust on Earth may lie deep beneath the eastern Mediterranean Sea – and at about 340 million years old, it beats the previous record by more than 100 million years.

Who was the first person to map the ocean?

Born in Michigan in 1920, Marie Tharp was a geologist and cartographer during her lifetime. In partnership with her colleague Bruce Heezen, Tharp was the first to scientifically map the ocean floor. Tharp began her work in science as a geologist for Stanolind Oil in the 1940s.

Who first gave the idea of sea floor spreading?

Harry Hess: One of the Discoverers of Seafloor Spreading.