How the plates move - A cross-sectional view

We saw in lecture that:
Both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are growing new seafloor.

At the same time, the Atlantic Ocean is growing at the expense of the shrinking Pacific Ocean.

How is that possible?

We made the generally true approximation that the area of the continents stays the same over time, while the area covered by the oceans changes substantially over time.

This diagram summarizes how this is possible.





Diagram by Earthguide at http://earthguide.ucsd.edu



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