How Old Is The Oldest Ocean Floor
So the ocean floor rarely lasts longer than 200 million years.
How old is the oldest ocean floor. According to a new study published in the journal nature communications microbes found buried below the seafloor have persisted for up to 101 5 million years. However parts of the eastern mediterranean sea are remnants of the much older tethys ocean at about 270 and up to 340 million years old. They could be the oldest known organisms on planet earth.
There are rocks on every continent that are 3 to 4 billion years old. All records listed on our website are current and up to date. Why is the seafloor so recent and the continental crust so old.
In essence oceanic plates are more susceptible to subductionas they get older. 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. The sediments do not have the energy.
This is because the oldest sea floor is subducted under other plates and replaces by new surfaces. Scientists use the magnetic polarity of the sea floor to determine the age. The oldest oceanic crust is about 260 million years old.
The oldest large scale oceanic crust is in the west pacific and north west atlantic both are about up to 180 200 million years old. The pacific is gradually shrinking in size by a few cm per year as the atlantic ocean expands due to plate tectonics. The pacific is the oldest of the current ocean basins with the oldest rocks on its floor being around 200 million years old.
The ocean is 4 billion yars old however due to subduction the oldest sediment found in the ocean s floor is 180 million years old. Why are there no oceanic rocks older than 200 million years. The tectonic plates are constantly in motion and new surfaces are always being created.