Seismic waves & Seismograms

Students:
Yessenia Del C. Sánchez Jimenez
Ana Lilia Romero Matildes
Norma Lilia Chi Sánchez
Miguel Daniel González González

Group: G8-1

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Content
• Seismic waves
• What is a seismograph?
• How works a seismograph?
• What is a seismogram?
• How Works a seismogram?
• What can we do with the seismograms?

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What are seismic waves?
• Seismic waves are the waves of energy caused by the sudden
breaking of rock within the earth or an explosion.

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Seismic waves types
• There are several different kinds of seismic waves, and they all move
in different ways. The two main types of waves are body
waves and surface waves.

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Body waves
Body waves arrive before the surface waves emitted by an earthquake.
These waves are of a higher frequency than surface waves.
P WAVES
 The first kind of body wave is the P wave or primary wave. This is the
fastest kind of seismic wave, and, consequently, the first to 'arrive' at
a seismic station.

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Body waves
• S wave or secondary wave, which is the second wave you feel in an
earthquake. An S wave is slower than a P wave and can only move
through solid rock, not through any liquid medium.

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Surface waves
• Surface waves are typically generated when
the source of the earthquake is close to the
Earth's surface.

• Although they move even more slowly than

S-waves, they can be much larger in
amplitude and are often the most
destructive type of seismic wave.

• There are several types of surface wave, but

the two most common varieties are Rayleigh
waves and Love waves.
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 Rayleigh waves
• Love waves have the same motion as
S-waves but without the vertical
displacement.

• Love waves are particularly damaging

to the foundations of structures
because of the horizontal ground
motion they generate.

• They only have the horizontal

components parallel to the surface.

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 Love waves
• These waves have their maximum
amplitude in the free surface, which
decreases exponentially with depth

• Rayleigh waves, also known as ground

roll, spread through the ground as
ripples, similar to rolling waves on the
ocean.

• Rayleigh waves are slower than body

waves and typically travel at a speed
that is 10% slower than S-waves.
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 These surface waves are
recorded in the receivers and
processed by software that
geoscientists to analyze the
answer of the earth.

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What is a seismograph?
• A seismograph, or seismometer, is an instrument used to detect and
record seismic waves. Seismic waves are propagating vibrations that
carry energy from the source of an earthquake outward in all
directions. They travel through the interior of the Earth and can be
measured with sensitive detectors called seismographs. Scientists
have seismographs set up all over the world to track the movement of
the Earth’s crust.

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 • Bedrock • Spring
Extremely hard rock It keeps the mass from
mass joined with the moving.
subsoil. • Pen
• Stand Writing instrument that
Horizontal support that converts ground
is secured to the movement into a line.
ground. • Rotating drum
• Pillar Secured to the ground, it
Very solid vertical rotates under the pen,
support. recording ground
• Mass movements on paper.
Independent of ground • Seismogram
movement, it remains Graphic representation
stationary during an produced by a
earthquake, thus seismograph; the
serving as a reference stronger the tremors, the
for measuring the greater the oscillations
amplitude of tremors. on the paper.

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How works a seismograph?
• Seismographs record a zig-zag trace that shows the varying amplitude
of ground oscillations beneath the instrument. This record is
proportional to the motion of the seismometer mass relative to the
earth, but it can be mathematically converted to a record of the
absolute motion of the ground. These are examples on how
seismographs work. Nowadays they are much more modern but the
physical principles are the same.

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What are the seismograms?
• The seismograms are the means by which the scientists and
geophysicists analyze the arrives of the seismic waves to the stations
where the seismometers are located, continuously registering these
signals to later determine in what place of the planet the seismic
event occurred.

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 YESSI
What can we do with seismograms?
• With seismograms you can visualize the arrival of seismic waves.
Seismic waves can usually be of two types, the corporeal or body
(waves P and S) and surface waves (love or rayleigh). The first wave to
be recorded is the P wave because it has a higher speed than the S
wave that is the second one to arrive, later and together the surface
waves

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 YESSI

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