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seismic wave

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Energy wave generated by an earthquake or an artificial explosion. There are two types of seismic waves: body waves that travel through the Earth's interior; and surface waves that travel through the surface layers of the crust and can be felt as the shaking of the ground, as in an earthquake. Seismic waves show similar properties of reflection and refraction as light and sound waves. Seismic waves change direction and speed as they travel through different densities of the Earth's rocks. Body waves There are two types of body waves: P-waves and S-waves, so-named because they are the primary and secondary waves detected by a seismograph. P-waves , or compressional waves, are longitudinal waves (wave motion in the direction the wave is travelling), whose compressions and rarefactions resemble those of a sound wave. S-waves are transverse waves or shear waves, involving a back-and-forth shearing motion at right angles to the direction the wave is travelling (see wave ). Because liquids…
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Full text Article seismic wave

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Energy wave generated by an earthquake or an artificial explosion. There are two types of seismic waves: body waves that travel through the Earth's interior; and surface waves that travel through the surface layers of the crust and can be felt as the shaking of the ground, as in an earthquake. …
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Full text Article seismic wave

From The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
A transient disturbance of the earth emanating from a seismic source, such as an earthquake (see SEISMOLOGY ). Seismic waves can either be surface waves or body waves . Surface seismic waves propagate over the earth's surface as either shear modes of vibration horizontal to the ground and normal to…
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Full text Article seismic wave

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
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Full text Article seismic wave

From The Penguin Dictionary of Science
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Full text Article seismic wave

From Collins English Dictionary
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Full text Article P-wave

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
In seismology, a class of seismic wave that passes through the Earth in the form of longitudinal pressure waves at speeds of 6–7 kps/3.7–4.4 mps in the crust and up to 13 kps/8 mps in deeper layers, the speed depending on the density of the rock. P-waves from an earthquake travel faster than S-waves…
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Full text Article P-waves

From The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
Pressure waves ( see SEISMIC WAVE ) that propagate through the body of the EARTH . The oscillation of the medium is about a fixed point and in a direction parallel to the direction of propagation of the wave ( see LONGITUDINAL WAVES ). P-waves propagate through fluids at a speed, v p = √(B/ρ), where…
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Full text Article S-waves

From The Penguin Dictionary of Physics
Shear waves ( see SEISMIC WAVE ) that propagate through the body of the earth. The oscillation of the medium is about a fixed point and in a direction perpendicular to the direction of propagation of the wave ( see TRANSVERSE WAVES ). S-waves cannot propagate through fluids, since fluids cannot…
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Full text Article seismic sea waves

From Science Encyclopedia: Encyclopedia of Marine Science
Seismic sea waves may be generated by seismic waves in the solid Earth. Seismic waves in the solid Earth originate from movements of the crust along fault lines, subduction zones, and in all locations in which stresses can build up and then be suddenly released. The sudden release of the stress…
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Full text Article seismic exploration

From Dictionary of Energy
The search for commercially economic subsurface deposits of oil, gas, and minerals by the recording, processing, and interpretation of artificially induced shock waves in the earth. Artificial seismic energy is generated on land by shallow borehole explosives such as dynamite, or surficial vibratory…
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