Passage I

Earthquakes produce seismic waves that can travel long distances through Earth. Two types of seismic waves are p-waves and s-waves. P-waves typically travel 6-13 km/sec and s-waves typically travel 3.5-7.5 km/sec. Figure 1 shows how p-waves and s-waves move and are refracted (bent) as they travel through different layers of Earth’s interior. Figure 2 shows a seismograph (an instrument that detects seismic waves) recording of p-waves and s-waves from an earthquake. Figure 3 shows, in general, how long it takes p-waves and s-waves to travel given distances along the surface from an earthquake focus (point of origin of seismic waves).

3. Based on Figure 3, for a given seismograph, the time elapsed between the arrival of the first p-waves and the arrival of the first s-waves from an earthquake focus 10,500 km away would most likely be:

Answer and Explanation

Your Answer is

Correct Answer is D

Explanation

Put value questions. Looking at figure 3, when the abscissa is 10,000 km, the difference between the y-coordinates of p-waves and s-waves exceeds 23-12=11 min, so when the distance from the epicenter is 10,500 km, the time difference is greater than 11 min, and option D meets