Henry Hess Sea Floor Spreading

The ocean ridge was thermally expanded and consequently higher than the ocean floor further away.

Henry hess sea floor spreading. Spreading the seafloor harry hess 1906 1969 in his navy uniform as captain of the assault transport cape johnsonduring world war ii. After the war he remained active in the naval reserve reaching the rank of rear. The seafloor spreading hypothesis was proposed by the american geophysicist harry h.

By the use of the sonar hess was able to map the ocean floor and discovered the mid atlantic ridge mid ocean ridge. He also found out that the temperature near to the mid atlantic ridge was warmer than the surface away from it. This created new seafloor which then spread away from the ridge in both directions.

Alfred wegener produced evidence in 1912 that the continents are in motion but because he could not explain what forces could move them geologists rejected his ideas. While traveling from one destination to another hess would leave the sounding equipment on that would take measurements of the sea floor. Harry hess and seafloor spreading harry hess was a profecer of geology at princeton university in the 1960 s and he played a key role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics.

Almost 50 years later harry hess confirmed wegener s ideas by using the evidence of seafloor spreading to explain what moved continents. Seafloor spreading was proposed by an american geophysicist harry h. Harry hess argues that the continents had once been one and have drifted apart.

He is best known for his theories on sea floor spreading specifically work on relationships between island arcs seafloor gravity anomalies and serpentinized peridotite suggesting that the convection of the earth s mantle was the driving force behind this process. Harry hess and marie tharp are the main heroes elucidating the mechanism for continental drift and thus laying the groundwork for plate tectonics in this w.