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Age of oceanic crust; youngest (red) is along spreading centers. Seafloor spreading is a process that occurs at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge. Seafloor spreading helps explain continental drift in the theory of plate tectonics.t the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (and in other areas), material from the upper mantle rises through the faults between oceanic plates to form new crust as the plates move away from each other, a phenomenon first observed as continental drift.
So depending on when seafloor rocks were formed, their particles are aligned in either one direction or the other, and they are said to have either positive or negative magnetic anomalies. In the late 1960s, magnetometer data revealed an alternating âstripedâ pattern of seafloor rocks. Rocks that formed when Earthâs magnetic field was in one position alternated with rocks that formed when the field was reversed.