This reduction, mostly resulting from a global slowdown in seafloor spreading, caused ocean basins to deepen. In the new work, published in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, the researchers ...

In this web focus we highlight the prevalence and diversity of seabed carbon sources. The sea floor is emerging as a source of carbon to the overlying ocean. Scientific exploration of the sea bed ...

The intense water pressure found deep in the abyss can crush most equipment, and the seafloor is essentially hidden from view under miles upon miles of water, which absorbs light and becomes opaque.

It confirmed sea-floor spreading as hypothesized by Hess, and thus "continental drift," originally proposed by Alfred Wegener back in 1912. It convinced many that plate tectonics was the best ...

Photo: Harry Hess argues that the continents had once been one, and have drifted apart. With the discovery of plate tectonics and the mapping of the earth into about 12 plates, plus the ...

But to date, only about 25% of it has been surveyed in this way. To produce a global picture of the seafloor, researchers have relied on satellite data. More accurate maps of the ocean floor are ...