The conventional view is that asteroids

Answer choices

1. A

   Unrelated to Goal11% picked this

   Several asteroid strikes within a short period could produce both volcanic activity that warms the oceans and atmospheric debris that blocks sunlight, and

   This answer seems to be trying to help us strengthen the idea that the asteroid strikes near the end of the Cretaceous period caused the mass extinction that followed. But the question stem asked us to support the geophysicist's claim. That last sentence is apparently believed by a lot of people, because the final sentence begins "There is a consensus that ... ". This answer only talks about the effects of asteroid strikes, but we're concerned about the causes of asteroid strikes: random or highly organized natural process?

   11%
2. B

   No Impact (pun intended)4% picked this

   If asteroids repeatedly pummel the same spots, the beating may affect the flow of molten rock inside the earth, which would affect the degree

   This is also talking about the effects of asteroid strikes, but it's not helping ascertain the cause of the halo-swath of craters or ascertain whether asteroids strike randomly or through some highly organized process.

   4%
3. C

   Weakens13% picked this

   The impact craters that form a halo-like swath across the Northern Hemisphere were the result of a single cluster

   This provides an Alternate Explanation for the halo-like swath. The halo doesn't exist because some highly organized process leads the asteroids to strike in that way. The halo just exists because they're all from the same cluster of meteors. The author is thinking that some natural process is guiding asteroids, over the ages, to this same halo area of the northern hemisphere. This answer is saying, no, these craters were just formed by one random toss of a meteor cluster.

   13%
4. D

   Correct68% picked this

   Lumpy masses within the earth cause gravitational interactions with approaching asteroids that force them into

   Why this is right

   This adds some plausibility to the geophysicist's claim, that asteroids hit the earth through a highly organized natural process. It provides the causal mechanism by which something like that could take place: If approaching asteroids are forced by gravity into specific orbits before impact, that sounds a lot like there's a highly organized natural process.

   Skill tested: Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   68%
5. E

   Weakens5% picked this

   No similar pattern of impact craters was created during any other period of

   It hurts the plausibility of the geophysicist's claim that this is a highly organized natural process if it's not recurring.

   5%