Convection cell currents

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  • Created by: broog
  • Created on: 07-04-15 14:20

Explain the development of convection cell currents to sea floor spreading (10 marks)

Sea floor spreading is a process in which two plates are moved away from each other allowing magma plumes to rise in between and create new land. this is also known as a constructive or divergent plate boundary. These boundaries are caused by convection cell currents in the asthenosphere. Convection cell currents are the continuos rotational movement of magma from the core to the crust.

The development of convection cell currents begins with the radioactive decay of elements and unstable isotopes in the Earths core which produces heat. This heat causes the magma/ molten rock in the lower asthenosphere to become less dense, as it gets hotter, and to rise in a plume upwards towards the lithosphere. As the magma rises it displaces the denser, cooler, magma that is near the Moho Discontinuity sending it sidways and downwards. When the hotter, less dense…

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