Harry Hess

Harry Hess (1906–1969) was an American geologist who proposed that seafloor spreading moves oceanic crust away from mid-ocean ridges, helping explain continental motion.

Alfred Wegener: Alfred Wegener was a German scientist who proposed continental drift in the early twentieth century. Wegener’s continental-drift hypothesis posed the question Hess’s seafloor-spreading model later helped explain.
Seafloor spreading: Seafloor spreading is the formation of oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges and its outward movement from them. This is the process Hess proposed to explain how ocean basins and continents change.
Continental drift: Continental drift is the hypothesis that continents have moved across Earth’s surface over geological time. Hess sought a physical process that could account for the continental motion Wegener had proposed.
Plate tectonics: Plate tectonics is the theory that Earth’s outer shell consists of moving plates whose interactions shape the surface. Seafloor spreading became a central process in the theory that unified Hess’s proposal with global geology.
Robert S. Dietz: Robert S. Dietz was an American geologist who independently proposed seafloor spreading in 1961. Dietz published a similar spreading proposal shortly before Hess’s account appeared.
Mid-ocean ridge: A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain chain where tectonic plates move apart and new oceanic crust forms. Hess placed rising mantle material and new crust at these submarine chains.
Paleomagnetism: Paleomagnetism is the record of Earth’s ancient magnetic field preserved in rocks. Magnetic records in ocean crust later provided a way to test seafloor spreading.
Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis: The Vine–Matthews–Morley hypothesis explains symmetrical magnetic stripes as records of seafloor spreading and magnetic reversals. This hypothesis provided a quantitative, testable confirmation of the spreading Hess had proposed.
Frederick Vine: Frederick Vine was a British geologist who connected magnetic stripes on the seafloor to spreading at ocean ridges. Vine and his collaborators supplied a key test of the model Hess had proposed.
Mantle convection: Mantle convection is the slow circulation of solid rock within Earth, driven by internal heat. Hess invoked mantle circulation as a possible driver of ocean-floor movement.

Linked from 19 pages