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Contents of 12.3 What is the evidence that plates move apart at divergent plate boundaries?

12.3 What is the evidence that plates move apart at divergent plate boundaries?

• Matching the edges of Africa and South America requires two conditions:
• Lithosphere containing the two existed before the Atlantic Ocean existed.
• The Atlantic Ocean grows wider with time.
• Plate tectonics theory predicts that oceanic lithosphere forms where continents separate. Is the geology of the seafloor consistent with this?