A student takes a piece of cardboard and cuts a rectangular slit in it. He then places two sheets of paper below the cardboard and pulls them through the slit. The sheets are pulled by their edges in opposite directions. Which extremely slow process is he trying to model?

Question

Responses
A mountain buildingmountain building
B sea floor spreadingsea floor spreading
C formation of the Grand Canyonformation of the Grand Canyon
D convergence of tectonic plates

Answer 1

The process the student is trying to model by cutting a rectangular slit in the cardboard and pulling the sheets of paper through it in opposite directions is most similar to B) sea floor spreading.

This is because sea floor spreading involves tectonic plates moving away from each other, similar to how the sheets of paper are being pulled apart through the slit. The act of pulling the paper in opposite directions represents the divergence of tectonic plates at mid-ocean ridges.