Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 18 . Captain Harry Hess (1906-1969) during World War II. Source : Courtesy of
Geosciences Department, Princeton University.
Hess's paper has been regarded as the first clear statement of the concept of sea-
floor spreading, though as the title indicates, its actual focus was the history of
ocean basins. Though Hess did not use the term “seafloor spreading,” his words
and diagrams clearly conveyed the concept:
The convecting cells have rising limbs under the mid-ocean ridges. . . .
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is median because the continental areas on each side of it have
movedawayfromitatthesamerate—1cm/yr.Thisisnotexactly thesameascontinental drift.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search