Scientists have determined that Earth's interior has layers with different properties. One property is that the inner core is solid. Which of the following statements can be used as evidence to support this property? A. During an earthquake, both P waves and S waves travel away from the focus through the interior of Earth. B. Seismographs that are far from the epicenter of an earthquake detect P waves much sooner than S waves. C. After an earthquake, P waves are detected on the opposite side of Earth but S waves are not. D. P waves do not refract based on the density of the medium it is traveling in, but S waves do.
Question
Scientists have determined that Earth's interior has layers with different properties. One property is that the inner core is solid. Which of the following statements can be used as evidence to support this property? A. During an earthquake, both P waves and S waves travel away from the focus through the interior of Earth. B. Seismographs that are far from the epicenter of an earthquake detect P waves much sooner than S waves. C. After an earthquake, P waves are detected on the opposite side of Earth but S waves are not. D. P waves do not refract based on the density of the medium it is traveling in, but S waves do.
Solution
The statement that can be used as evidence to support the property that the inner core of the Earth is solid is C. After an earthquake, P waves are detected on the opposite side of the Earth but S waves are not.
Here's why:
P waves, or primary waves, are seismic body waves that shake the ground back and forth in the same direction and the opposite direction of the wave direction. They can travel through solid, liquid, and gas.
S waves, or secondary waves, are seismic body waves that vibrate up and down and side-to-side. They can only move through solids and are stopped by liquids and gases.
The fact that S waves are not detected on the opposite side of the Earth after an earthquake suggests that they are being stopped by a solid layer - in this case, the inner core. This provides evidence that the inner core of the Earth is indeed solid.
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