 Seismic Waves and Inversion

 Vandana Chopra
 Eddie Willett
 Ben Schrooten
 Shawn Borchardt
 Topics

 What are Seismic Waves???????

 History

 Types of Seismic Waves

What are Seismic Waves ???
 Seismic waves are the vibrations from
earthquakes that travel through the
Earth

 They are the waves of energy suddenly created by

the breaking up of rock within the earth or an
explosion .They are the energy that travels through
the earth and is recorded on seismographs
 History
 Seismology - the Study of Earthquakes and
Seismic Waves
 1) Dates back almost 2000 years

 Seismometers and
Seismographs
 Seismometers are instruments for detecting
ground motions
 Seismographs are instruments for recording
seismic waves from earthquakes.
 Seismometers are based on the principal of an
“inertial mass”
 Seismographs amplify, record, and display the
seismic waves
 Recordings are called seismograms
 Types of Seismic Waves

 Body waves
Travel through the earth's interior

 Surface Waves
Travel along the earth's surface - similar to
ocean waves
 P-Wave(Body Wave)
Primary or compressional (P) waves

a) The first kind of body wave is the P wave or primary

wave. This is the fastest kind of seismic wave.
b) The P wave can move through solid rock and fluids, like
water or the liquid layers of the earth.
c) It pushes and pulls the rock it moves through just like
sound waves push and pull the air.
d) Highest velocity (6 km/sec in the crust)
P-Wave
 Secondary Wave (S Wave)
 Secondary or shear (S) waves
a)The second type of body wave is the S wave or
secondary wave, which is the second wave you
feel in an earthquake.
 b) An S wave is slower than a P wave and can
only move through solid rock. (3.6 km/sec in the
crust)
 c) This wave moves rock up and down, or side-to-
side.
S-Wave
 L-Wave
 Love Waves
 The first kind of surface wave is called a
Love wave, named after A.E.H. Love, a
British mathematician who worked out the
mathematical model for this kind of wave in
1911.
 It's the fastest surface wave and moves the
ground from side-to-side.
L-Wave
 Rayleigh Waves
 Rayleigh Waves
 The other kind of surface wave is the Rayleigh wave, named
for John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh, who mathematically
predicted the existence of this kind of wave in 1885.
 A Rayleigh wave rolls along the ground just like a wave rolls
across a lake or an ocean. Because it rolls, it moves the
ground up and down, and side-to-side in the same direction
that the wave is moving.
 Most of the shaking felt from an earthquake is due to the
Rayleigh wave, which can be much larger than the other
waves.
Rayleigh Waves
Seismic Wave Equations
 Outline
I’m going to briefly cover three different
Seismic wave equations
-Inhomogeneous Constant
Density 2-D Wave Equation
-First Order Wave Equation
-Acoustic Wave Equation and how it’s
derived
Example of 2-D Wave