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Earthquake waves
Earthquake waves are seismic waves, which are produced when some form of energy stored in Earth’s
crust is suddenly released, usually when masses of rock straining against one another suddenly fracture and “slip.”
These waves travel in all directions.
1. Body Waves - waves that travel through the interior of the earth, body waves arrive before the surface
waves emitted by an earthquake. These waves are of a higher frequency than surface waves.
2. Surface Wave — waves that travel only through the crust, surface waves are of a lower frequency than body
waves, and are easily distinguished on a seismogram as a result. Though they arrive after body waves, it is
surface waves that are almost entirely responsible for the damage and destruction associated with
earthquakes. This damage and the strength of the surface waves are reduced in deeper earthquakes.
a. Rayleigh waves
Named for John William Strutt, Lord
Rayleigh, who mathematically predicted
the existence of this kind of wave in 1885.
This is a combination P and S-Wave. A
Rayleigh wave rolls along the ground just
like a wave rolls across a lake or an ocean.
The surface, while being told to
vibrate forward and backward in the
direction of the wave is also told to
vibrate up and down perpendicular to the
direction of the wave. The result is the
surface moving in a vertical circular path -
back and forth AND up and down.
Most of the shaking felt from an
earthquake is due to the Rayleigh wave,
which can be much larger than the other
waves.
The Rayleigh wave is particularly
damaging because it tells structures to
move in two directions at once.
b. Love waves
Notations:
Particle motion of surface waves is larger than that of body waves, so surface waves tend to cause more
damage.
When an earthquake occurs, seismographs near the epicenter are able to record both P and S waves, but
those at a greater distance no longer detect the high frequencies of the first S wave.
The path that a waves takes between the focus and the observation point is often drawn as a ray diagram
1. Refraction
If the seismic wave velocity in the rock below a boundary increases, the waves will be refracted upward and
speed up relative to their original path. If it passes across a boundary to a lower velocity layer, the wave will be
refracted downward and slow down. Because velocity generally increases with depth in the mantle, the wave paths
get bent until they reach a critical angle at which point, the waves return to the surface following a curved path
upward.
2. Reflection
A seismic reflection is generated when a wave impinges on a change in rock type (which usually is
accompanied by a change in seismic wave speed). Part of the energy carried by the incident wave is transmitted
through the material (that’s the refracted wave described above) and part is reflected back into the medium that
contained the incident wave.
Reflection and refraction of seismic waves
****A beam of light is refracted or reflected when it crosses the boundary between air and water. Seismic waves
behave similarly at boundaries within the Earth.****
Seismic waves travel fast, on the order of kilometers per second (km/s). The precise speed that a seismic
wave travels depends on several factors, most important is the composition of the rock.
Temperature tends to lower the speed of seismic waves and pressure tends to increase the speed. Pressure
increases with depth in Earth because the weight of the rocks above gets larger with increasing depth. Usually, the
effect of pressure is the larger and in regions of uniform composition, the velocity generally increases with depth,
despite the fact that the increase of temperature with depth works to lower the wave velocity
Where:
= shear modulus
= density
K = modulus of compressibility (bulk modulus)
The Poisson’s ratio μ is the ratio between the lateral contraction (relative change
E G of width W) of a cylinder being pulled on its ends to its relative longitudinal
Vs extension.
2 (1 )
Where:
G = modulus of rigidity
Air 332
Water 1400-1500
Petroleum 1300-1400
Seismic Phases
The change of seismic velocities within Earth, as well as the possibility of conversions between
compressional (P) waves and shear (S) waves, results in many possible wave paths. Each path produces a separate
seismic phase on seismograms. Seismic phases are described with one or more letters, each of which describes a
part of the wave path. Upper case letters denote travel through a part of the earth (e.g. P or S), and lower case
letters denote reflections from boundaries.
The different ray paths with both P and S-wave ‘legs’ have been named. A ‘P’ denotes a P-wave leg and an ‘S’ denotes
a S-wave leg. PCP denotes a reflection off the core-mantle boundary. PP and PPP are free surface multiple
reflections. ‘K’ is used for a core traversing wave such as PKP.
Because there is a very large velocity decrease across the core-mantle boundary, Snell’s Law predict the
waves will refract ‘towards the normal’. This refraction creates a ‘shadow zone’ for both the P- and S-waves at
epicentral distances >97°.
Teleseismic Phases
In these plots, the seismic event is at the left, and seismic ray paths are shown to possible stations at several
angular distances from the event.