Free SAT Practice Question

Question 1 of 1
ID: DSAT-RW-103
Section: Digital SAT Reading & Writing (RW) - Broadly Reading - Information and Ideas
Topic: Central Ideas and Details
Difficulty level: Medium

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In 2022, engineer Lina Morales and her team at Oceanic Robotics set out to design a micro-submersible that could navigate the ultra-salty brine pools that collect on the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico. Because these pools are several times saltier than normal seawater, the fluid is denser and more viscous; off-the-shelf thrusters built for coastal research boats would stall, and a standard vehicle would sink into the pool's sharp density boundary. For three years, the team tested prototypes in laboratory tanks that reproduced the brine's chemistry and temperature. The craft they finally deployed could maneuver in the pools because its buoyancy chambers were enlarged and its propellers were re-pitched to push against the thicker fluid.

According to the text, why would a submersible built for ordinary seawater be unable to operate in seafloor brine pools?

ABecause brine pools have very different fluid properties compared with ordinary seawater

BBecause the propellers on seawater submersibles are too large to fit inside brine pools

CBecause Earth's gravity is weaker near the seafloor than at the surface

DBecause submersibles built for seawater are too small to carry cameras at those depths

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