What happens to the ocean floor as it gets further from the spreading center of the mid-ocean ridge?

As the ocean floor moves away from the spreading center of the mid-ocean ridge, it gets deeper and denser due to a combination of factors.

At the mid-ocean ridge, tectonic plates are pulling apart, allowing magma from the mantle to rise and create new oceanic crust. This newly formed crust is hot and buoyant, making it relatively shallower. As this new crust moves away from the ridge and ages, it cools down and becomes denser. This cooling process leads to a gradual increase in the thickness of the oceanic crust, as sediments start to accumulate and the crust sinks further into the ocean basins due to its increasing density.

Additionally, as the distance from the ridge increases, the crust is subjected to pressure from the overlying water column and the weight of the sediments, contributing further to the increased depth. This relationship between distance from the spreading center and the physical properties of the ocean floor is fundamental to understanding the characteristics of the oceanic environment associated with plate tectonics.