Editing Seafloor spreading (section)

==History of study==
Earlier theories by [[Alfred Wegener]] and [[Alexander du Toit]] of [[continental drift]] postulated that continents in motion "plowed" through the fixed and immovable seafloor. The idea that the seafloor itself moves and also carries the continents with it as it spreads from a central rift axis was proposed by [[Harry Hammond Hess|Harold Hammond Hess]] from [[Princeton University]] and [[Robert S. Dietz|Robert Dietz]] of the [[Navy Electronics Laboratory|U.S. Naval Electronics Laboratory]] in [[San Diego]] in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Petrologic studies: a volume to honor A. F. Buddington|last=Hess|first=H. H.|date=November 1962|publisher=Geological Society of America|editor=A. E. J. Engel|place=Boulder, CO|pages=599–620|chapter=History of Ocean Basins|editor2=Harold L. James|editor3=B. F. Leonard|chapter-url=http://www.mantleplumes.org/WebDocuments/Hess1962.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dietz|first=Robert S.|date=1961|title=Continent and Ocean Basin Evolution by Spreading of the Sea Floor|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=190|issue=4779|pages=854–857|doi=10.1038/190854a0|bibcode=1961Natur.190..854D|s2cid=4288496|issn=0028-0836}}</ref> The phenomenon is known today as [[plate tectonics]]. In locations where two plates move apart, at mid-ocean ridges, new seafloor is continually formed during seafloor spreading.