What was Harry Hess’s discovery?

Harry Hess was a geologist and Navy submarine commander during World War II. Part of his mission had been to study the deepest parts of the ocean floor. In 1946 he had discovered that hundreds of flat-topped mountains, perhaps sunken islands, shape the Pacific floor.

What did Harry Hess invent?

Henry (also known as Harry) Hess was a geologist born in 1906. He worked as a professor at Princeton, was in the Naval Reserve during World War II and helped develop the U.S. Space Program. While Henry Hess did not invent any devices, he is known for coming up with the Theory of Plate Tectonics.

What did Harry Hess Discover 1953?

the Great Global Rift

With the discovery in 1953 of the Great Global Rift, a volcanic valley running along the midocean ridges, Hess looked back at data he had collected during the war. In 1960 (and with further elaboration in 1962), he hypothesized that the sea-floor was spreading from vents in the Rift, where hot magma oozed up.

What did Harry Hammond Hess discover?

Hess discovered that the oceans were shallower in the middle and identified the presence of Mid Ocean Ridges, raised above the surrounding generally flat sea floor (abyssal plain) by as much as 1.5 km.

What was Arthur Holmes theory?

Holmes primary contribution was his proposed theory that convection occurred within the Earth’s mantle, which explained the push and pull of continent plates together and apart. He also assisted scientists in oceanographic research in the 1950s, which publicized the phenomenon known as sea floor spreading.

What did Arthur Holmes discover?

On January 14, 1890, British geologist Arthur Holmes was born. Holmes pioneered the use of radiometric dating of minerals and was the first earth scientist to grasp the mechanical and thermal implications of mantle convection, which led eventually to the acceptance of plate tectonics.

What did Harry Hess Discover 1962?

In 1962, he added a geologic mechanism to account for Wegener’s moving continents. It was possible, he said, that molten magma from beneath the earth’s crust could ooze up between the plates in the Great Global Rift.

Who discovered continental drift?

scientist Alfred Wegener

The theory of continental drift is most associated with the scientist Alfred Wegener. In the early 20th century, Wegener published a paper explaining his theory that the continental landmasses were “drifting” across the Earth, sometimes plowing through oceans and into each other.

What made early scientists reject Wegener’s continental drift idea?

The main reason that Wegener’s hypothesis was not accepted was because he suggested no mechanism for moving the continents. He thought the force of Earth’s spin was sufficient to cause continents to move, but geologists knew that rocks are too strong for this to be true.

When did Alfred Wegener discover continental drift?

1912

If this sounds shocking today, you should put yourself in the shoes of geologists back in 1912, who were much more troubled when a 32-year-old German meteorologist, Alfred Wegener, launched his theory of continental drift.

Why was the Wegener’s theory forgotten?

Why was Wegener’s theory forgotten? He could not explain how the continents could move. Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea floor spreading? because of subduction the Pacific Ocean.

Why is Earth not growing in spite of sea flooring?

The Continental Slide

New crust is continually being pushed away from divergent boundaries (where sea-floor spreading occurs), increasing Earth’s surface. But the Earth isn’t getting any bigger. What happens, then, to keep the Earth the same size? The answer is subduction.

What do Earth’s plates move on top of?

The plates can be thought of like pieces of a cracked shell that rest on the hot, molten rock of Earth’s mantle and fit snugly against one another. The heat from radioactive processes within the planet’s interior causes the plates to move, sometimes toward and sometimes away from each other.

What happens when one tectonic plate moves?

When the plates move they collide or spread apart allowing the very hot molten material called lava to escape from the mantle. When collisions occur they produce mountains, deep underwater valleys called trenches, and volcanoes.

What would Earth be like without tectonic plates?

What would Earth be like without plate tectonics? We’d have many fewer earthquakes and much less volcanism, fewer mountains, and probably no deep-sea trenches. …

Are the continents floating on water?

The continents do not float on a sea of molten rock. The continental and oceanic crusts sit on a thick layer of solid rock known as the mantle.

How are new ocean formed?

Mid-ocean ridges are the boundaries between tectonic plates and are the place where the plates spread apart from each other. Magma from the underlying mantle erupts at the edges, then cools and solidifies to form new ocean crust.

Is there a 6th ocean?

There are currently five oceans on our planet, but researchers have stated that a sixth ocean is forming. In Eastern Africa, lies the Afar Triangle — also called the Afar Depression.

Is it true that Africa is splitting?

Summary: The African continent is slowly separating into several large and small tectonic blocks along the diverging East African Rift System, continuing to Madagascar – the long island just off the coast of Southeast Africa – that itself will also break apart into smaller islands.

Why are the oceans salty?

Ocean salt primarily comes from rocks on land and openings in the seafloor. Salt in the ocean comes from two sources: runoff from the land and openings in the seafloor. Rocks on land are the major source of salts dissolved in seawater. Rainwater that falls on land is slightly acidic, so it erodes rocks.

Can you drink sea water if boiled?

Boiling seawater does not make it safe to drink because it does not remove the salt. On Average, seawater holds 3.5% salt, too much for the body to process. As seawater boils, it evaporates, leaving the salt behind. You’re making the seawater saltier by boiling it.

How much of the ocean is whale pee?

People who attended the show, said that the amount of liquid expelled by such a burst look like a geyser! But whatever the number of gallons of urine produced by the whale is like a single drop in a bucket compared to 1.3 billion KM3 water of the oceans!

Why is the ocean blue?

The ocean is blue because water absorbs colors in the red part of the light spectrum. Like a filter, this leaves behind colors in the blue part of the light spectrum for us to see. The ocean may also take on green, red, or other hues as light bounces off of floating sediments and particles in the water.

Why does the sea never freeze?

The gravitational pull of the moon, earth’s spinning motion, and thermal convection combine to create large-scale flows of ocean water known as ocean currents. This constant motion of the ocean water helps keep the water molecules from freezing into the somewhat stationary state of ice crystals.

What colour is water?

The water is in fact not colorless; even pure water is not colorless, but has a slight blue tint to it, best seen when looking through a long column of water. The blueness in water is not caused by the scattering of light, which is responsible for the sky being blue.