What could cause this.
Magnetic stripes on the ocean floor indicate what.
Magnetic stripes scientists discovered that the rock that makes up the ocean floor lies in a pattern of magnetized stripes these stripes hold a record of reversals in earth s magnetic field.
This creates a symmetrical pattern of magnetic stripes of opposite polarity on either side of mid ocean ridges.
The rock of the ocean floor contains iron.
Among the new findings was the discovery of zebra stripe like magnetic patterns for the rocks of the ocean floor.
Magnetic stripes and isotopic clocks oceanographic exploration in the 1950s led to a much better understanding of the ocean floor.
Such magnetic patterns led to recognition of the occurrence of sea floor spreading and they remain some of the strongest evidence for the theory of plate tectonics.
The figure below includes two images of the ocean floor.
This pattern of stripes could represent what scientists see on the seafloor.
These patterns of stripes provide the history of seafloor spreading.
This similar to how iron filing line up when they are next to a magnet as seen in the pictures below.
Which location on this figure from the investigation is located on the abyssal plain.
At the mid ocean ridge spreading axis these flips in the direction of the earth s magnetic field are recorded in the magnetization of the lava.
Magnetic patterns develop on the sea floor as basaltic lava erupts and cools and iron rich minerals align with earth s magnetic field.
When the rocks are in melted form these minerals will line up with earth s magnetic field.
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.
In the oceans magnetic stripes are symmetrical about a mid ocean ridge axis.
Magnetic striping magnetic minerals are found in rocks.
The magnetic variation in successive bands of ocean floor parallel with mid ocean ridges is important evidence supporting the theory of seafloor spreading central to plate tectonics.
These patterns were unlike any seen for continental rocks.
When the earth s magnetic field reverses a new stripe with the new polarity begins.
Note that the stripes are symmetrical about the central dusky purple stripe.
