Final answer:
The age of the rocks increases as you move away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge due to seafloor spreading. This pattern helps scientists understand Earth's magnetic field history and calculate the spreading rates of oceanic ridges.
Step-by-step explanation:
The age of rocks increases as you move away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This pattern is due to seafloor spreading, where new rocks are formed at the ridge as tectonic plates move apart. Over time, as plates continue to diverge, older rocks are pushed farther from the ridge, making the rocks progressively older the further they are from the ridge's center. This activity is evident from the magnetization of rocks that shows reversals in Earth's magnetic field, which are recorded in the rocks and aligned symmetrically about the ridge, indicating that new rocks continually form and older rocks move away from the ridge. To understand Earth's history, scientists use the spreading rate to calculate the age of the seafloor; this helps to determine the timing of geomagnetic reversals and to develop the geologic time scale.
Comparing the ages of the seafloor between the mid-Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean reveals that the spreading rate can vary between different ridges. The age of seafloor rocks and the distance between them and the closest ridge give insights into which ridge is spreading faster. For example, if the Pacific Ocean's seafloor is younger at similar distances from the East Pacific Rise compared to the Atlantic seafloor from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it would suggest the East Pacific Rise has a faster spreading rate.