Earths Magnetic Field Rocks On Ocean Floor

Magnetometers are devices that can detect tiny deviations in the earth s magnetic field.

Earths magnetic field rocks on ocean floor.

These instruments have been used to map the ocean floor. These two things were the magnetic striping on the ocean floor and the age of seafloor rocks. The magnetic orientation of the earth is recorded in the igneous rock at the time of its. As new crust is created on the ocean floor the new crust solidifies with its iron oxide particles acting like miniature compass needles pointing to wherever magnetic north is at the time.

Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor. The ground of the ocean is made of magnetite that is part of iron rich volcanic rock. On either side the rocks are older the farther they are from the ridge. The evidence exists in the extrusive igneous rock basalt on the ocean floor near the mid oceanic ridges.

This similar to how iron filing line up when they are next to a magnet as seen in the pictures below. Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe like magnetic patterns for the rocks of the ocean floor. 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. Thus these grains are permanent records of the location of the earth s magnetic field at the time the rock forms.

When the rocks are in melted form these minerals will line up with earth s magnetic field. Magnetic striping magnetic minerals are found in rocks. False the concept of seafloor spreading was supported by magnetic polarity stripes on the ocean floor. 174 unit 3 dynamic earth m agnetic north magnetic north bands of rocks on both.

The polarity of the earth s magnetic field is recorded in igneous rocks and reversals of the field are thus detectable as stripes centered on mid ocean ridges where the sea floor is spreading while the stability of the geomagnetic poles between reversals has allowed paleomagnetism to track the past motion of continents. The earth s magnetic field reverses in a regular pattern every few hundred thousand years. This rock has strong magnetic properties that allow us to see the history of earth s magnetic field. Plate tectonics and reversals of the earth s magnetic field are responsible for the magnetic stripes found on the ocean floor.