When researchers compared the magnetic data from the ocean floor with the pattern of magnetic reversals on land, scientists were able to determine the age of the ocean floor.

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Explanation:

Researchers confirm a correlation between tectonic plate movement, the flux of the mantle above the nucleus and the reversal rate of the Earth's magnetic field, something that has long been believed.

The magnetic field is generated deep within the earth in a liquid outer core composed of iron and other elements that create electric currents which, in turn, produce magnetic fields.

The core is surrounded by a mantle nearly 3,000 km thick which, although composed of solid rock, flows very slowly (a few millimeters per year). The mantle produces convection currents that are tightly linked to the movement of the tectonic plates, but also affect the core by varying the amount of heat that is transferred across the core-mantle boundary.

Earth's magnetic field occasionally reverses its polarity. The average time between these oscillations has changed drastically throughout terrestrial history. Today, for example, such magnetic reversals occur on average four times every million years. But one hundred million years ago, the field remained essentially at the same polarity for nearly 40 million years.