Building a New Ocean Floor

A 3D short film about how the floor of the ocean is made, with every line on screen. It opens on a globe of the real ocean floor, colored by its age, where the mid-ocean ridges glow as the newest floor. Then it cuts a ridge open: two plates pull apart, hot mantle rock rises and a small part of it melts, and lava erupts on the seafloor as rounded pillows. Watch the new floor ride away on both sides, record each flip of Earth’s magnetic field in matching stripes, and meet the black smokers and the life around them. It ends back on the globe, where even the oldest ocean floor is only about 180 million years old. Personal, creator, and public display licenses. From $25.

3D short film · From $25 USD · All products