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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Half and full spreading rates?

Also known as: half spreading rate · full spreading rate

Definition 12.15 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 1 · Chapter 12 — Plate Kinematics on a Sphere

At a ridge, the half spreading rate of a flank is the rate at which the crust of that flank moves away from the ridge axis. The full spreading rate is the rate at which the two plates move apart, the sum of the two half rates; it is twice the half rate when the spreading is symmetric.

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