spreading center

[ spred-ing sen-ter ]

noun

, Geology.

1. a linear zone in the seafloor along which magma rises and from which adjacent crustal plates are moving apart.

Word History and Origins

Origin of spreading center¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Every plate-boundary spreading center is a potential colonization area.

From Science Daily

The zone is what seismologists call a “spreading center” with faults that slowly stretch the earth.

From Washington Post

The volcanic spreading center — more than 300 miles long — lies in a slanted line off the West Coast, from British Columbia to Oregon.

From New York Times

Huybers and his colleagues are now working to tease out the ice age signal from another medium-rate spreading center, the Juan de Fuca Ridge, off the coast of the U.S.

From Science Magazine

The study in Science was based on fresh ocean-floor data gathered by a Korean icebreaker ship during 2011 and 2013 surveys across the Australian-Antarctic ridge, a spreading center south of Tasmania.

From Science Magazine