Question

instructions read the passage(s) below and answer the question based on what is stated or implied in the passage(s) and in any introductory material that may be provided. passage ancient sea salt drilled from a geologic basin in russia is providing dramatic new clues as to how earths early atmosphere became oxygen - rich - allowing life as we know it to evolve. buried deep beneath the surface for billions of years, the salt reveals surprising clues about the chemistry of the ocean and atmosphere from long ago. the salt, excavated by an international team led by russian scientists, is about a billion years older than other, similar geologic samples. its age puts it smack in the middle of earths great oxygenation event, the ancient period in which oxygen began to dominate atmospheric chemistry. “this is a truly unique, one - of - a - kind deposit,” says clara blattler, a geochemist at princeton university. the salty new samples are made up of minerals left behind when water evaporates. “because these evaporite minerals are our most direct way of sampling ancient sea waters, this deposit gives us a snapshot of seawater in the interval time when we dont really have any other direct constraints.” from nola taylor redd, “primeval salt shakes up ideas on how the atmosphere got its oxygen.” ©2018 by scientific american, a division of nature america, inc. question one central idea of the passage is that the air is a by - product of the process that deposits salt in earths oceans salt deposits provide evidence of the way the ancient oceans and air interacted international cooperation is at the heart of many of sciences best discoveries atmospheric chemists are most interested in the earths great oxygenation event

Explanation:

The passage focuses on ancient sea - salt drilled from a Russian geologic basin. It reveals clues about the chemistry of the ancient ocean and atmosphere, showing how they interacted during Earth's Great Oxygenation Event. The salt deposits are a key source of information for understanding this interaction.

Answer:

B. salt deposits provide evidence of the way the ancient oceans and air interacted