Seismic Waves

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Topics
• Wave phenomenon
– What is a wave, types of waves
• Measure a wave
– Wave speed, period, wavelength, amplitude
• Wave propagations
– Ray path, reflection, refraction, diffraction
• Types of seismic waves
– P and S waves; body waves and surface waves
• Reading seismograms
– Identify different waves by their arrival times, amplitudes and
periods.

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What is a Wave ?
• A wave is a disturbance or variation that
transfers energy progressively from point to
point in a medium.
• Examples:
– Sound wave: variation of pressure in the air
– Radio wave: variation of EM intensity
– Water wave: variation of water surface
– Seismic wave: variation of elastic deformation in rocks
• Note that the medium doesn’t travel along with
the wave.
• Waves like the EM wave do not even need a
medium to propagate.
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Wave Speed
• It is the speed that the wave travels.
• The wave speed is a material property. No
matter how big the wave is, it travels at the
same speed.
• Sound wave speed in dry air
v = 331 + 0.6 T (m/s)
where T is temperature in Celsius
• Elastic wave speeds in rocks are 1 ~ 10 km/s,
depends mainly upon temperature, pressure,
and composition.

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Period, Wavelength
• Period, T, is the time for a point to go
through one cycle of disturbance.
Period

Time

• Frequency, f, is one over the period. It has

units of one over time (s-1), also called Hz.
• Wavelength is the distance that the wave
travels in one period. So
 = v T = v/f
It has units of length (m).
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Waves of Different Frequencies
A package of wave may be composites of waves with
many different frequencies. For example, the EM waves:

Visible Radio
X-ray light
waves
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Amplitude and Energy

• Amplitude, A, is a measure of the height of

the wave (peak to peak).
• For a seismic wave of amplitude A and
period T, the kinetic energy of 1 m3 rock is:
E = 2  (A/T)2
• If the wave is traveling at a speed of v, the
energy transportation rate will be:
P=Ev

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Wave Propagation and Rays
• In a uniform medium,
waves generated at the
source travel outward in
spherical shape.
• The wave energy travels
along a straight line from
the source to a receiver.
• We can use an imaginary
ray to trace the wave
propagation.

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Wave Reflection
• Reflection: waves can be bounced back by a
boundary.
• The incidence angle and the angle of the
reflected ray are the same

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Wave Refraction
• Refraction: at an interface between two
media of different wave speeds, the
wave changes its propagation direction
(bending of ray path).

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Refraction and Snell’s Law
The change of direction follows the Snell’s law:
i1 sin(i1) sin(i2)
=
velocity1 velocity1 velocity2

velocity2
i2

(velocity2 > velocity1)

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Wave Refraction Example
• Waves of different frequencies travel with slightly
different speeds. They are called dispersive waves.
• Refraction separates them into different directions

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Wave Diffraction

• Diffraction: wave travels around barriers

and corners.

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Seismic Wave Types
• Two types of elastic waves can exist in
solids
P wave: compressional
and expansional motion,
cause changes in
volume. It travels faster
than the S-wave (P
stands for Primary).
S wave: shear motion,
cause no volume change.
It doesn’t exist in liquid.
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 Seismic Wave Types
• Seismic waves can also be labeled by
the paths they take in the Earth.

Body waves (P or S)
travel through the
interior of the Earth.
Surface Waves travel
along the Earth surface.
Their speeds are slower
and their amplitudes
decrease slowly with
distance compared to
the body waves.
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Two Kinds of Surface Waves

• Love waves are pure

S-type surface waves.
They vibrate the
ground from side-to-
side with no vertical
movement.
• Rayleigh waves are
the P and S mixture.
They vibrate the
ground in an elliptical
pattern.

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Seismic Wave Types
Body Waves
Surface Waves

 Large amplitude  Small amplitude

 Long wavelength  Short wavelength
 Wide range of  Narrow frequency
frequencies (large band
bandwidth)  Travel more quickly
 Travel slowly  Produced by all
 Not produced by earthquakes
deep earthquakes

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Oaxaca,
Mexico
earthquake
recorded by
seismometer
in Alaska.

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A Jet and
an
Earthquake

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Sometimes we can use
the observed frequencies
to identify different
sources of vibrations.

Which has higher

frequency content, the
sonic boom or the
earthquake?

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 Summary
• Seismic waves are traveling vibrations that transport
Seismic waves are traveling vibrations that transport
energy from the earthquake “source” region throughout
the Earth.

• We distinguish between 4 types of waves, the body waves

P and S, and the surface waves, Love and Rayleigh.

• Each wave travels with a characteristic speed, and vibrates

the ground in a specific manner.

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