How does Earth’s magnetic field provide evidence for seafloor spreading?

As lava at a mid-ocean ridge cools, iron-bearing minerals align with Earth’s magnetic field and preserve its direction. Because Earth’s magnetic polarity reverses over time, newly formed seafloor records alternating magnetic stripes. The matching pattern on both sides of the ridge shows that new crust forms there and moves outward, so the correct choice is “It creates a pattern of alternating rock stripes on both sides of a mid-ocean ridge.”

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