What is the characteristics of body waves and surface waves?

The two main types of waves are body waves and surface waves. Body waves can travel through the Earth’s inner layers, but surface waves can only move along the surface of the planet like ripples on water. Earthquakes send out seismic energy as both body and surface waves.

What are the 4 characteristics of seismic waves?

Seismic Wave Motions—4 waves animated
  • Body Waves – Primary (P) & Secondary (S) Waves.
  • Surface Waves – Rayleigh & Love Waves.

What is the classification of body waves?

Body waves are of two types: compressional or primary (P) waves and shear or secondary (S) waves. P- and S- waves are called “body waves” because they can travel through the interior of a body such as the Earth’s inner layers, from the focus of an earthquake to distant points on the surface.

What is the 2 types of body waves?

Body waves
  • P-waves. The first type of body wave is called the primary wave or pressure wave, and is commonly referred to as P-waves. …
  • S-waves. The second type of body wave is called the secondary wave, shear wave or shaking wave, and is commonly referred to as S-waves. …
  • Wave propagation.

What consists of a body wave?

A body wave is a seismic wave that moves through the interior of the earth, as opposed to surface waves that travel near the earth’s surface. P and S waves are body waves. Each type of wave shakes the ground in different ways.

What is the characteristic of secondary waves?

Secondary , or S waves, travel slower than P waves and are also called “shear” waves because they don’t change the volume of the material through which they propagate, they shear it.

Which statement is true about body waves?

Detailed Solution. The correct answer is option 1) i.e. ​Body waves are generated due to the release of energy at the focus and move in all directions traveling through the body of the earth. Earthquake waves are basically of two types — body waves and surface waves.

How do body waves form?

Two kinds of waves are generated by earthquakes and travel through solid rock: In P or compressional waves, the vibration of the rock is in the direction of propagation. P waves travel fastest and are the first to arrive from the earthquake.

How do body waves work?

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 are the 3 main types of seismic waves?

There are three basic types of seismic waves – P-waves, S-waves and surface waves. P-waves and S-waves are sometimes collectively called body waves.

What is the main cause of seismic waves?

Earthquakes are the result of sudden movement along faults within the Earth. The movement releases stored-up ‘elastic strain’ energy in the form of seismic waves, which propagate through the Earth and cause the ground surface to shake.

What are the importance of seismic waves?

The importance of seismic wave research lies not only in our ability to understand and predict earthquakes and tsunamis, it also reveals information on the Earth’s composition and features in much the same way as it led to the discovery of Mohorovicic’s discontinuity.

What the meaning of seismic waves?

A seismic wave is an elastic wave generated by an impulse such as an earthquake or an explosion. Seismic waves may travel either along or near the earth’s surface (Rayleigh and Love waves) or through the earth’s interior (P and S waves).

What is the difference between body waves and surface waves?

Body waves travel through the interior of the Earth. On the other hand, surface waves propagate only at the interface between two different media, like the interface between Earth and atmosphere (i.e. the surface of the Earth).

Which type of earthquake body wave has the slowest velocity?

surface waves
The slowest (and latest to arrive on seismograms) are surface waves, such as the L wave. L waves are named for the Cambridge mathematician A.E.H. Love who first described them. The surface waves are generally the largest recorded from an earthquake.