Activity Summary: Students will be able to read and interpret a map of lithospheric plates to calculate the rate of sea floor spreading and explain the significance of different spreading rates in different areas.

In this lesson, students will calculate rates of sea floor spreading using magnetic anomaly data taken from sediment cores collected on the ocean floor at sea floor spreading ridges. Before conducting this lesson, students should know about the different types of plate boundaries and Earth’s magnetic field.

This lesson has been revised and updated based on The Race Is On…with Seafloor Spreading!