Seismic waves, Types of seismic wave and seismic waves characteristics.

In this Article, We are going to discuss the types of seismic waves releases due to the earthquake, Types of seismic waves and characteristics of seismic waves

As I have explained in my previous article that how seismic waves releases during an earthquake so if you have not yet read that article so please read it first because that post is interrelated with this article. You can find that article from below link.

Earthquake engineering

Now lets understand more about seismic waves:- 

Seismic waves:- There are several kind of seismic waves and they all travel in different ways in different direction. These seismic waves are broadly classified into two types:-

1) Body Waves:- Body waves are the waves which travel through all earth layers in all direction and are not restricted to any depth. There are basically two types of body waves Primary(P) and secondary(S) waves. Lets understand primary and secondary waves:-

Primary waves:- In this type of waves material particle vibrate in the direction of propagation of waves. It means if waves will propagate in X direction then particle will also vibrate in X direction.     P-waves will propagate with a push or pull effect. We can also say that these waves are longitudinal waves or compression waves.

Few important characteristics of Primary waves or (P-Waves):- 

• If I talk about speed of these waves then they are fastest to travel and because of there speed they are first to be recorded at recording station.
• These waves can travel through the solid as well as liquid.
• These waves can cause volumetric change in material through which they pass
• It does not cause any huge destruction to earth but give any minor shocks to earth surface.

Secondary waves:- In these waves particles generally propagate at right angle to the direction of propagation. Other name of these waves are Shear waves and Shake waves.

Few important characteristics of S-Waves:-

• Speed of these waves are generally slower than P-waves.
• These can be passed through the solid but they are not unable to propagate through fluids.
• These waves are distortional in nature or transverse in nature.
• As P-waves change the volume of material, S-waves do not change any such property.
  
  
  

2) Surface waves:- The seismic waves which travel along the surface of the earth in a circumferential path. Frequency of these waves are lower than body waves. These waves are of two types 

Few important Characteristics of surface waves:-

• These waves are the slowest to travel and last to be recorded at station.
• Surface waves are the most destructive in nature and are responsible to all the damage on the earth surface.

Surface waves are of two types:-

Rayleigh waves:- These waves were first discovered by Lord Rayleigh in the year 1885. The surface waves in which material particle vibrates in Elliptical path. Due to these waves particle travel up and down and side to side in the direction of propagation of waves.

Love waves:- The surface waves were discovered by A.E.H love who was a British mathematician. In this waves the particle basically travel in horizontal plane at right angle to the direction of propagation.

As you can see in this picture the particle is vibrating in horizontal direction.

Thanks and keep learning and sharing guys.

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