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USGS CMG InfoBank: Sampling the Sea Floor

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Comment: 19:31 - 20:30 (00:59)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 5. The Birth of a Theory

Keywords: "transform fault", oceanographer, sampling, "sea floor", "Glomar Challenger", "drill core", "mid-oceanic ridge", paleomagnetism, "sea floor spreading", fossil, paleoclimate, mountain, "mineral deposit"

Our transcription: As transform faults were being discovered, oceanographers prepared for the most intensive sampling of the sea floor ever undertaken using the research vessel, Glomar Challenger.

In 1968 drill cores showed that the sea floor grows older with distance from the mid-ocean ridges.

Together with the magnetic data and transform faults, the cores indicated sea floor spreading must take place.

Suddenly, scientists could easily explain many aspects of Earth's Geology and History, which had long been unclear.

Not only could the distribution of fossils and paleoclimates be explained, but the origins of mountain ranges, mineral resources, large faults and magnetic field patterns also made sense.

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