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Seismic Waves

Seismic waves are caused by the sudden breaking of rock within the Earth or explosions. There are two main types of seismic waves: body waves and surface waves. Body waves include P-waves, which are fast compression waves that can travel through solid rock and fluids, and S-waves, which are slower shear waves that only travel through solid rock. Surface waves include Love waves, which move the ground side-to-side, and Rayleigh waves, which roll along the ground like ocean waves, causing both up-and-down and side-to-side shaking.

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94 views10 pages

Seismic Waves

Seismic waves are caused by the sudden breaking of rock within the Earth or explosions. There are two main types of seismic waves: body waves and surface waves. Body waves include P-waves, which are fast compression waves that can travel through solid rock and fluids, and S-waves, which are slower shear waves that only travel through solid rock. Surface waves include Love waves, which move the ground side-to-side, and Rayleigh waves, which roll along the ground like ocean waves, causing both up-and-down and side-to-side shaking.

Uploaded by

Yangki Dizon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What are Seismic Waves?

Presentation based upon information retrieved from: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/waves.html


Movie clips from United Streaming
What do you know about Waves?

• Where are they?


• What do waves do?
• How many different wave types are there?
• Are waves important to all of us?
• Why or why not?
• Name different types of waves.
Wave Characteristics
Types of Waves
• Compression wave
• Transverse Wave

• Seismic Wave
– Body Waves
• Primary or p-wave
– Compression wave
• Secondary or s-wave
– Transverse wave
– Surface
• Love wave
• Rayleigh wave
Seismic Wave

• Seismic waves are the waves of energy caused


by the sudden breaking of rock within the earth
or an explosion. They are the energy that travels
through the earth and is recorded on
seismographs.
• There are several different kinds of seismic
waves, and they all move in different ways. The
two main types of waves are body waves and
surface waves.
Body Waves
• P Waves (compression wave)
• The first kind of body wave is the P wave or primary wave. This
is the fastest kind of seismic wave. The P wave can move through
solid rock and fluids, like water or the liquid layers of the earth. It
pushes and pulls the rock it moves through just like sound waves
push and pull the air.
Stop and Think
• Have you ever heard a big clap of thunder
and heard the windows rattle at the same
time?
• The windows rattle because the sound
waves were pushing and pulling on the
window glass much like P waves push and
pull on rock. Sometimes animals can hear
the P waves of an earthquake. Usually we
only feel the bump and rattle of these
waves.
Body Waves
• S wave (transverse wave)
• The second type of body wave is the S wave or secondary
wave, which is the second wave you feel in an earthquake. An
S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move through
solid rock. This wave moves rock up and down, or side-to-side.
Surface Waves
• Love Waves
• The first kind of surface wave is called a Love wave, named
after A.E.H. Love, a British mathematician who worked out
the mathematical model for this kind of wave in 1911. It's the
fastest surface wave and moves the ground from side-to-side.
Surface Waves
• Rayleigh Waves
• The other kind of surface wave is the Rayleigh wave, named for John
William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, who mathematically predicted the existence
of this kind of wave in 1885. A Rayleigh wave rolls along the ground just
like a wave rolls across a lake or an ocean. Because it rolls, it moves the
ground up and down, and side-to-side in the same direction that the wave
is moving. Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is due to the
Rayleigh wave, which can be much larger than the other waves.

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