Seafloor spreading is a process in which tectonic plates (large irregularly shaped slabs of solid rock that is usually made up of both continental and oceanic lithosphere) move and separate apart from each other. Seafloor spreading is the result of mantle convection and it takes place at mid-ocean ridges, where there is formation of new oceanic crust through volcanic activity.
Soviet engineers began diverting the two rivers that sustain it, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, in order to grow cotton in the desert-National Geographic
