jack oliver was one of the two scientists who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading in the early 1960s.
jack oliver was one of the two scientists who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading in the early 1960s.
who were the two scientists who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading in the early 1960s?
jack oliver
harry hess proposed the sea-floor spreading hypothesis in 1960 (published in 1962 ); the term "spreading of the seafloor" was introduced by geophysicist robert s. dietz in 1961. according to hess, seafloor was created at mid-oceanic ridges by the convection of the earth's mantle, pushing and spreading the older crust away from the ridge. geophysicist frederick john vine and the canadian geologist lawrence w. morley independently realized that if hess's seafloor spreading theory was correct, then the rocks surrounding the mid-oceanic ridges should show symmetric patterns of magnetization reversals using newly collected magnetic surveys. both of morley's letters to "nature" (february 1963) and "journal of geophysical research" (april 1963) were rejected, hence vine and his phd adviser at cambridge university, drummond hoyle matthews, were first to publish the theory in 1963. some colleagues were skeptical of the hypothesis because of the numerous assumptions made—seafloor spreading, geomagnetic reversals, and remnant magnetism—all hypotheses that were still not widely accepted. the vine–matthews–morley hypothesis describes the magnetic reversals of oceanic crust. further evidence for this hypothesis came from cox et al. (1967) when he measured the remnant magnetization of lavas from land sites. walter c. pitman offered further evidence with a remarkably symmetric profile from the pacific-antarctic ridge.
vine–matthews–morley hypothesis
section::::sea floor spreading.









































seafloor spreading can be discussed using the magnetic anomaly lineations and the distribution of two types of granite. theoretically, seafloor spreading should follow the rift phase during basin opening. however, continental rifting and seafloor spreading overlap for around 5 m.y. during the early miocene. for example, when northeast area was in the seafloor spreading stage, rifting was ongoing in the southwestern part.
tectonics of the south china sea