Seismic wave
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the Earth's
layers, and are a result of an earthquake, explosion, or a volcano
that imparts low-frequency acoustic energy. Many other natural and
anthropogenic sources create low amplitude waves commonly
referred to as ambient vibrations. Seismic waves are studied by
geophysicists called seismologists. Seismic wave fields are recorded
by a seismometer, hydrophone (in water), or accelerometer.
Contents
1 Types of seismic waves
1.1 Body waves
1.1.1 Primary waves
1.1.2 Secondary waves
1.2 Surface waves
1.2.1 Rayleigh waves p-wave and s-wave from seismograph
1.2.2 Love waves
1.2.3 Stoneley waves
1.2.4 Free oscillations of the Earth
1.3 P and S waves in Earth's mantle and core
2 Notation
3 Usefulness of P and S waves in locating an event
4 See also
5 References
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6 External links
Body waves travel through the interior of the Earth, surface waves travel across the surface
Surface waves decay more slowly with distance than do body waves, which travel in three dimensions
Particle motion of surface waves is larger than that of body waves, so surface waves tend to cause more
damage
Other modes of wave propagation exist than those described in this article; though of comparatively minor
importance for earth-borne waves, they are important in the case of asteroseismology.
Body waves
Body waves travel through the interior of the Earth. They create raypaths refracted by the varying density and
modulus (stiffness) of the Earth's interior. The density and modulus, in turn, vary according to temperature,
composition, and phase. This effect resembles the refraction of light waves.
Primary waves
Primary waves (P-waves) are compressional waves that are longitudinal in nature. P waves are pressure waves that
travel faster than other waves through the earth to arrive at seismograph stations first, hence the name "Primary".
These waves can travel through any type of material, including fluids, and can travel at nearly twice the speed of S
waves. In air, they take the form of sound waves, hence they travel at the speed of sound. Typical speeds are
330 m/s in air, 1450 m/s in water and about 5000 m/s in granite.
Secondary waves
Secondary waves (S-waves) are shear waves that are transverse in nature. Following an earthquake event, S-
waves arrive at seismograph stations after the faster-moving P-waves and displace the ground perpendicular to the
direction of propagation. Depending on the propagational direction, the wave can take on different surface
characteristics; for example, in the case of horizontally polarized S waves, the ground moves alternately to one side
and then the other. S-waves can travel only through solids, as fluids (liquids and gases) do not support shear
stresses. S-waves are slower than P-waves, and speeds are typically around 60% of that of P-waves in any given
material.
Surface waves
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Seismic surface waves travel along the Earth's surface. They are called surface waves, as they diminish as they get
further from the surface. Their velocity is lower than those of seismic body waves (P and S). Because of the long
duration and large amplitude of the surface waves, they can be the most destructive type of seismic wave. Surface
waves travel more slowly than the other type of seismic waves.
Rayleigh waves
Rayleigh waves, also called ground roll, are surface waves that travel as ripples with motions that are similar to
those of waves on the surface of water (note, however, that the associated particle motion at shallow depths is
retrograde, and that the restoring force in Rayleigh and in other seismic waves is elastic, not gravitational as for
water waves). The existence of these waves was predicted by John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, in 1885. They
are slower than body waves, roughly 90% of the velocity of S waves for typical homogeneous elastic media. In the
layered medium (like the crust and upper mantle) the velocity of the Rayleigh waves depends on their frequency and
wavelength. See also Lamb waves.
Love waves
Love waves are horizontally polarized shear waves (SH waves), existing only in the presence of a semi-infinite
medium overlain by an upper layer of finite thickness.[4] They are named after A.E.H. Love, a British mathematician
who created a mathematical model of the waves in 1911. They usually travel slightly faster than Rayleigh waves,
about 90% of the S wave velocity, and have the largest amplitude.
Stoneley waves
A Stoneley wave is a type of large amplitude Rayleigh wave that propagates along a solid-fluid boundary or under
specific conditions also along solid-solid boundary. They can be generated along the walls of a fluid-filled borehole,
being an important source of coherent noise in VSPs and making up the low frequency component of the source in
sonic logging.[5] The equation for Stoneley waves was first given by Dr. Robert Stoneley (1894 - 1976), Emeritus
Professor of Seismology, Cambridge.[6]
This phenomenon is a result of interference between two surface waves traveling in opposite directions. In fact it is
a surface standing wave. Interference of Rayleigh waves results in spheroidal oscillation S while interference of
Love waves gives toroidal oscillation T. The modes of oscillations are specified by three numbers, e.g. n Slm,
where l is the angular order number (or spherical harmonic degree, see Spherical harmonics for more details).
The number m is the azimuthal order number. It may take on 2l+1 values from -l to +l. The number n is the radial
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order number. It means the wave with n zero crossings in radius. The fundamental spheroidal mode 0S2 has a
period of about 54 minutes. The period of 0S3 is 36 minutes, and 0S4 is 26 minutes. Two modes cannot naturally
exist are the 0S0 and 0T1. The spheroidal mode 0S0 doesn't exist because it requires a change in the center of
gravity, which can't happen. The toroidal mode 0T1 doesn't exist because it requires the entire sphere to twist,
which violates the conservation of angular momentum. The fundamental toroidal mode 0T2 has a period of about 44
minutes [1]. For spherically symmetric Earth the period for given n and l does not depend on m. The first
observations of free oscillations of the Earth were done during the great 1960 earthquake in Chile. Presently
periods of thousands modes are known. These data are used for determining some large scale structures of the
Earth interior.
Notation
The path that a wave takes between the focus and the observation point
is often drawn as a ray diagram. An example of this is shown in a figure
above. When reflections are taken into account there are an infinite
number of paths that a wave can take. Each path is denoted by a set of
letters that describe the trajectory and phase through the Earth. In general
an upper case denotes a transmitted wave and a lower case denotes a
reflected wave. The two exceptions to this seem to be "g" and "n". The
notation is taken from [7] and.[8]
The scheme of motion for spheroidal
0S2 oscillation.Dashed lines give nodal
(zero) lines. Arrows give the sense of
motion.
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For example:
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ScP is a wave that begins traveling towards the center of the Earth as an S wave. Upon reaching the outer
core the wave reflects as a P wave.
sPKIKP is a wave path that begins traveling towards the surface as an S-wave. At the surface it reflects as a
P-wave. The P-wave then travels through the outer core, the inner core, the outer core, and the mantle.
The travel time must be calculated very accurately in order to compute a precise hypocenter. Since P waves move
at many kilometers per second, being off on travel-time calculation by even a half second can mean an error of
many kilometers in terms of distance. In practice, P arrivals from many stations are used and the errors cancel out,
so the computed epicenter is likely to be quite accurate, on the order of 1050 km or so around the world. Dense
arrays of nearby sensors such as those that exist in California can provide accuracy of roughly a kilometer, and
much greater accuracy is possible when timing is measured directly by cross-correlation of seismogram waveforms.
See also
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AdamsWilliamson equation
Reflection seismology
earthquakes
References
1. ^ P. M. Shearer, Introduction to seismology. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1999, isbn 0 521 669 53 7 (Also see errata
(http://mahi.ucsd.edu/shearer/errata.html))
2. ^ Peter M. Shearer (2009). Introduction to Seismology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-88210-1.
3. ^ Seth Stein; Michael Wysession (1 April 2009). An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure.
John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-1131-0.
4. ^ Sheriff, R. E., Geldart, L. P. (1995). Exploration Seismology (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 52.
ISBN 0-521-46826-4.
5. ^ Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary. Stoneley wave. (http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?
Term=Stoneley%20wave)
6. ^ Robert Stoneley, 1929 2008.. Obituary of his son with reference to discovery of Stoneley waves.
(http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/pid/5825;jsessionid=B80DF900AFFC974028AEFB7138FB1BDF)
7. ^ An Introduction to the Theory of Seismology, 4th ed.; K.E. Bullen and Bruce A. Bolt (1993)
8. ^ International Handbook of Earthquake and Engineering Seismology, Volume 1; ed. William Han Kung Lee;
accessed through books.google.com
External links
EDT: A MATLAB toolbox for seismic wave propagation (http://www.kuleuven.be/bwm/edt)
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