His idea that continents could plow through basalt ocean crust without a reasonable driving force made him a laughing stock among geophysicists. The spreading pushes rock out and the oldest rocks are the furthest from the center. Median rift Where new lava actually emerges. It diverges to form the two sides of the ridge. Proposed mechanism for moving plates - thermal convection cells.
HOT magma rises to create new crust.
Proves that plates on opposite sides of divergent plates are moving away from each other. The molten iron of our outer core causes a geomagnetic field. This field aligns with the axis due to Earth s rotation b. We use this paleomagnetism to find paleolatitudes where rock was formed. What s up with latitude Ancient rock records also give us information that can help determine the location of the Earth s magnetic poles and the latitude of the rock when it formed.