Explanation ·When basalt cools, it records the earth's polarity at that time
Basalt begins as magma; it contains magnetic material that freely aligns with the earth's magnetic field at the time; when it cools down to form solid basalt, the alignment is locked in.
Global mid-ocean ridge contains stripes of basalt with alternating polarities. Imagine a zebra's stripes where the white stripes point north and the black stripes point south.
New explanation is that the ocean floor is not static. It has been changing as new magma erupts from the ridge. The magma spreads out away from the ridge and cools to lock in the polarity.
Evidence Supporting New Theory ·3 pieces of evidence
Rocks near ridge crest are young; the youngest rocks have normal polarity; the bands of magnetic orientation as recorded by rocks are corroborated by known age of magnetic reversals.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
21.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████
Question Type
Implied
We can’t predict the correct answer just based on the question stem, so let’s use process of elimination.
Supported. We know that the rocks become progressively older as they get further away from the crest of the mid-ocean ridge. Where is the mid-ocean ridge? Probably somewhere in the middle of the ocean. That’s why it’s called “mid-ocean”? If the rocks get progressively older as they get further from the mid-ocean ridge...then they’re oldest the furthest away they get. Where are the rocks that are furthest from the mid-ocean ridge? Near the continents.
b
The older a ██████ ██ ██████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ █████████
Not supported, because a given sample of basalt does not change polarity. The polarity of basalt is determined based on the polarity of the magma when it cools to become basalt.
The author never provides a basis to compare the likelihood of compass distortion on sea and on land. We know that there are rocks with reversed polarity both on sea and on land.
d
The magnetic fields ███████████ █████████ ██████ █████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
We have no basis to think that magnetic fields weaken over millions of years. Although we know that polarity of the earth changes from time to time, this doesn’t indicate that magnetic fields grow weaker.
e
Any rock that ████████ ███████████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ██████
Anti-supported, because we know that the polarity of the earth undergoes reversals. So if the field might point north, then south, then back to north. This means that the current polarity direction also existed many times in the past — rocks that show current polarity might come from those more distant time periods where the polarity of the earth happened to match the current polarity.
Difficulty
42% of people who answer get this correct
This is a very difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%156
167
75%178
Analysis
Implied
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
42%
166
b
17%
161
c
12%
162
d
7%
158
e
21%
161
Question history
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