How Do Magnetic Stripes Form On The Ocean Floor

Volcanic eruptions deposit cooled magma on the ocean floor.

How do magnetic stripes form on the ocean floor. 0 0 0 votes 0 votes rate. As the rock cooled the iron bits inside lined up in the direction of earth s magnetic poles. Stripes of normal polarity and reversed polarity alternate across the ocean bottom.

Plate tectonics and reversals of the earth s magnetic field are responsible for the magnetic stripes found on the ocean floor. This similar to how iron filing line up when they are next to a magnet as seen in the pictures below. These two things were the magnetic striping on the ocean floor and the age of seafloor rocks.

Report log in to add a comment answer. These patterns of stripes provide the history of seafloor spreading. The normal and reversed magnetic polarity of seafloor basalts creates a pattern.

Over time the earth s magnetic field reverses its north to south polarity and the magnetic minerals point in the opposite direction creating a striped pattern. The rock began as molten material that cooled and hardened. First stripes of normal and reversed polarity were alternate across the bottom of the ocean.

When the rocks are in melted form these minerals will line up with earth s magnetic field. New material forms on the ocean floor of the mid ocean ridge due to plate tectonics and volcanic activity. 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.

In sea floor speading the sea floor spreads apart along both sides of a mid century ridge as new crust is added. Earth s magnetic poles have reversed themselves many times during earth s history. The iron bits inside the rock line up in the direction of earth s magnetic poles.