Question

What would happen if the rate of seafloor spreading was faster than the rate of subduction?

Answer 1

The options to choose from are:

a. Arc volcanoes would not form.

b. The ocean basins would shrink.

c. The Earth would become smaller.

d. The Earth would grow larger.

Step-by-step explanation:

Seafloor spreading occurs when tectonic plates move away from each other, and subduction is when plate tectonics crash into each other, and the denser plate slides the lesser dense one underneath. In the process of Seafloor spreading, new crust forms on the Earth´s lithosphere, whereas subduction destroys old crust, as the material melts back to earth´s mantle. These 2 movements tend to balance each other, but following this logic we can assume that if the rate of seafloor spreading was significantly greater than the rate of subduction, the diameter of the earth would increase.

Answer 2

If the rate of seafloor spreading was faster than the rate of subduction than we would have had much more land mass on the surface on the Earth. This will cause lots of very long and very high mountain ranges in the oceans (much bigger ones that the ones that are forming now) and because of the huge amount of magma that will be pushing through they will be getting above the ocean waters and forming new land masses, and that will make the world much different from what we now it now.