CHAPTER 4:

Propagation of Seismic
Disturbances:
Earthquake Waves
What is earthquake wave?
Earthquake Waves
 Seismic waves that are created when energy builds up in rocks and they fracture.
 Earthquake vibrations originate from the point of initiation of rupture and propagate in all
directions. These vibrations travel through the rocks in the form of elastic waves.

Types of Seismic Waves:

1. Body Waves – waves that move within the Earth’s interior or within a body of rock
2. Surface Waves – waves that move close to or on the outside surface of the Earth.

1. Elastic waves – Body waves

Two types based on mode of travel:

a) Primary Waves:
• Longitudinal Waves , Push-pull Waves
• They are faster than transversal waves and thus arrive first.
• The particles oscillate in the direction of spreading of the wave.
• Compressional waves
• P-waves
b) Secondary Waves:
• Transversal Waves
• The particles oscillate in the direction perpendicular to the spreading direction.
• Shear waves – they do not propagate through solids (e.g. through the outer core).
• S-waves
 Body Waves P and S waves Particle Motion

2. Surface Wave
Two types:
a) Rayleigh Waves:
• Tension-compression waves
• Their amplitude diminishes with distance below the surface of the ground
b) Love Waves:
• Shear Waves
• They diminishes rapidly with distance below surface.
Why are seismic waves important?
Some things seismic waves are good for include:
 mapping the interior of the earth
 detection of contaminated aquifers
 finding prospective oil and natural gas locations

Types of Interaction between Waves

1. Refraction:
• The deflection, or bending, of
the ray path of a seismic wave
caused by its passage from one
material to another having
different elastic properties.
• Bending of a tsunami wave
front owing to variations in the
water depth along a coastline.

2. Reflection :
• The energy or wave from an earthquake that has been
returned (reflected) from an boundary between two
different materials within the earth, just as a mirror
reflects light.
Seismic Wave Speed
Seismic Wave Speed Equation
where:
 = shear modulus
 = density
K = modulus of compressibility (bulk modulus)
The bulk modulus (K) of a substance essentially measures the
substance's resistance to uniform compression.
It is defined as the pressure increase needed to effect a given
relative decrease in volume.
Shear modulus, μ, sometimes referred to as the modulus of
rigidity, is the ratio of shear stress to the shear strain
Seismic Phases
Earthquake Waves
 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

P - A primary (compressional) wave that follows a

simple path from event source to the station.
PcP - A P-wave that goes downward through the
mantle (the first “P”), is reflected from the top of the
outer core (“c”) and goes upward through the mantle
to the station (second “P”).
Pdiff - A P-wave that has been bent (diffracted) around
the outer core boundary and arrives at a station in the
ray “shadow” of the outer core.

S - A secondary (shear) wave that follows a path

similar to the P wave (not shown).
SS - A shear wave that has traveled through the mantle
(“S”), undergone one reflection from the underside of
Earth’s surface and traveled again through the mantle
(second “S”). Unlike with most other reflected waves,
there is no separate letter to denote the reflection at the
surface; it is implicit.
PP - A compressional wave that follows paths similar
to those of SS (not shown).