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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.
Subduction is the process that destroys oceanic crust, and sea-floor spreading is the process that creates oceanic crust. Sea-floor spreading is driven by crust formation along the mid-ocean ridges, meandering undersea mountain ranges that span Earth like the seams of a baseball.eafloor spreading Theory that explains how continental drift occurs. It proposes that the ocean floor is moved laterally as new basalt rock is injected along mid-ocean ridges, and so the ocean floor becomes older with increasing distance from the ridge. See also plate tectonics.