Does rock friction cause seismic waves?

Earthquakes & Earth’s Interior. Earthquakes occur when energy stored in elastically strained rocks is suddenly released. This release of energy causes intense ground shaking in the area near the source of the earthquake and sends waves of elastic energy, called seismic waves, throughout the Earth.

What can cause seismic waves?

Seismic waves are caused by the sudden movement of materials within the Earth, such as slip along a fault during an earthquake. Volcanic eruptions, explosions, landslides, avalanches, and even rushing rivers can also cause seismic waves.

Do seismic waves travel through rock?

P waves travel through rock the same way that sound waves do through air. That is, they move as pressure waves. When a pressure wave passes a certain point, the material it is passing through moves forward, then back, along the same path that the wave is traveling. P waves can travel through solids, liquids and gases.

Are earthquakes caused by friction?

An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip on a fault. The tectonic plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to friction.

How do seismic waves move through rock?

Body waves radiate outward from the focus in all directions and travel through solid rock. A P body wave (primary body wave) is a compressional (longitudinal) wave that induces the particles in the rock to vibrate back and forth in the same direction the wave moves.

How do rock particles move during the passage of AP wave through the rock?

Particles of rock move forward and back during the passage of the P waves. Primary waves can travel through both fluids and solids. Secondary waves travel slower and follow primary waves, propagating as shear waves. Particles of rock move from side to side during the passage of S waves.

What type of seismic wave causes rock particles to vibrate perpendicular to the direction that waves travel?

shear waves

The answer is shear waves. Remind them that in shear waves particles of material move back and forth perpendicular to the direction in which the wave itself moves.

Which type of seismic wave moves rock particles up and down?

S waves

S waves move rock particles up and down, or side-to-side perpendicular to the direction that the wave is traveling in (the direction of wave propagation).

What seismic wave moves back and forth?

There are two broad classes of seismic waves: body waves and surface waves. Body waves travel within the body of Earth. They include P, or primary, waves and S, or secondary, waves. P waves cause the ground to compress and expand, that is, to move back and forth, in the direction of travel.

What seismic wave causes rock to move both up and down and from side to side?

As the P-waves arrive the ground will move up and down. The S-waves produce waves that both move the ground up and down and back and forth in the direction of wave motion. The Love waves shake the ground from side to side, and the Rayleigh waves create a rolling up and down motion (see figure 10.26 in your text).

What kind of seismic wave arrives last at seismic?

surface waves

The slowest waves, surface waves, arrive last. They travel only along the surface of the Earth. There are two types of surface waves: Love and Rayleigh waves.

What seismic waves move in elliptical?

Rayleigh Waves—surface waves that move in an elliptical motion, producing both a vertical and horizontal component of motion in the direction of wave propagation.

What type of seismic waves are released?

Earthquakes shake the ground because fault rupture releases vibrations that radiate in the form of seismic energy. These earthquake waves, also called body waves, come in two distinct forms: Primary or “P” waves and Secondary or “S” waves.

What are the 3 types of seismic wave?

There are three major kinds of seismic waves: P, S, and surface waves. P and S waves together are sometimes called body waves because they can travel through the body of the earth, and are not trapped near the surface. A P wave is a sound wave traveling through rock.

What are the waves of energy caused by the sudden breaking of rock?

Seismic waves are often termed elastic waves, which can be described as the energy caused by a sudden breaking of rock within the earth, such as from earthquakes, or explosions, such as from the sources in seismic surveys.

What is the fastest type of seismic wave that arrives first in the seismic station?

P waves travel fastest and are the first to arrive from the earthquake. In S or shear waves, rock oscillates perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. In rock, S waves generally travel about 60% the speed of P waves, and the S wave always arrives after the P wave.

Which seismic wave refracts and Cannot penetrate the core?

The seismic waves that get refracted and cannot pass through the core of the Earth are: S-waves.

What type of earthquake wave travels through solid rock only?

S-waves

Body waves travel through the body of a planet. Surface waves travel along the surface. There are two types of body waves: P-waves travel fastest and through solids, liquids, and gases; S-waves only travel through solids.

Which seismic wave does not pass through the fluid?

S-waves

S-waves cannot travel through liquids.

Are seismic waves sound waves?

As the Earth shakes at the surface, seismic waves are pulsing through the layers of Earth below, invisible to human eyes and ears but observable as sound waves. Sound waves that can be recorded, even monitored, to provide advance warning of a coming seismic event.

Which seismic waves will cause most damage on the Earth’s ground?

Love waves have a particle motion, which, like the S-wave, is transverse to the direction of propagation but with no vertical motion. Their side-to-side motion (like a snake wriggling) causes the ground to twist from side to side, that’s why Love waves cause the most damage to structures.

Which seismic waves are the most destructive and why?

Of the two types of surface waves, the L-waves are the most destructive. They can literally move the ground beneath a building faster than the building itself can respond, effectively shearing the base off of the rest of the building.