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## Seafloor Spreading Theory * States that oceanic crust forms along the mid-ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them. * Seafloor Spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates - large slabs of the Earth's lithosphere - split apart from each other. * This theory was p...

## Seafloor Spreading Theory * States that oceanic crust forms along the mid-ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them. * Seafloor Spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates - large slabs of the Earth's lithosphere - split apart from each other. * This theory was proposed by Harry Hess and Robert Dietz in 1960. * **Ocean Floor** moves like a conveyor belt carrying continents with it. * **New Ocean Floor** forms along cracks in the ocean crust as molten materials erupt from the mantle, spreading out and pushing older rocks to the sides of the crack. * **New Ocean Floor** is continually added by the process of seafloor spreading. ## Transform Fault Boundaries * Are margins where two plates grind past each other without the product or destruction of the lithosphere. * Also called "Conservative plate boundaries". ## Lithosphere Plate / Tectonic Plate * A massive, irregularly shaped slab of solid rock, generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithosphere.