seismic wave: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos and Videos

Diagram showing four main types of seismic waves: P wave with alternating compressions and expansions, S wave with vertical undulations, Love wave with horizontal shearing, and Rayleigh wave with rolling elliptical motion.

Figure 18: Profiles of the quality factor (Q; see Table 2), viscosity, and electrical conductivity as functions of depth. The quality factor is determined for shear waves at frequencies of one to 100 hertz (periods of one to 0.01 second).

Graph showing travel-time curves for seismic waves, with time after initial rupture on the vertical axis and distance from earthquake epicenter on the horizontal axis. Three lines represent primary (P) waves arriving fastest, secondary (S) waves arriving next, and Rayleigh and Love waves arriving slowest.

The video thumbnail image shows a woman trying to break a bundle of pasta strands as part of a scientific demonstration.

How P waves travel

How S waves travel

How Love waves travel

How Rayleigh waves travel

See All Videos and Images →

Topics

seismic ray seismic discontinuity body wave earthquake magnitude surface wave Love wave secondary wave primary wave Rayleigh wave channel wave Climate electromagnetic radiation sound Climate change wave Gravitational wave Weather aftershock simple harmonic motion longitudinal wave

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

default image

Inge Lehmann

Danish seismologist

Sir Harold Jeffreys

Sir Harold Jeffreys

British astronomer and geophysicist

default image

Beno Gutenberg

American seismologist

Cross section of Earth showing the core, mantle, and crust

The Solid Earth Quiz