Waves that emanate from the site of the quake inside the earth are called body waves. The first of these are known as P waves, for primary or pressure. … An earthquake also causes secondary or shear waves, called S waves. These travel at about half the speed of P waves, but
can be much more destructive
.
Do R waves cause the most damage?
Surface waves
— Rayleigh (R-wave). Surface waves (Rayleigh and Love) do by far the most damage. As opposed to body waves (S and P waves), they propagate on the surface and carry the vast majority of the energy felt on the surface — in other words, these are what you feel when you experience an earthquake.
Which waves cause the most damage?
Answer and Explanation:
Surface waves
are the seismic waves that cause the most damage. Surface waves are named as such because they move along close to the surface of the Earth.
How destructive are P waves?
The first set of waves to be detected by seismographs are P waves, or primary waves, as they’re the fastest. They’re compressional or longitudinal waves that push and pull the ground in the direction the wave is traveling.
They usually cause very little damage
.
Do Love or Rayleigh waves cause more damage?
Love waves cause more damage than Rayleigh waves
, but both are highly destructive because they occur near the surface of the Earth.
Why are L waves the slowest?
The different S waves arrive after the P waves. The slowest (and latest to arrive on seismograms) are
surface waves
, such as the L wave. … The energy from surface waves is confined to a smaller volume at the surface and the wave amplitude to carry that energy is therefore larger than body waves.
Which type of wave travels the fastest?
P-Waves
. The P in P-waves stands for primary, because these are the fastest seismic waves and are the first to be detected once an earthquake has occurred. P-waves travel through the earth’s interior many times faster than the speed of a jet airplane, taking only a few minutes to travel across the earth.
What are R waves and L waves?
Seismic Waves: The main seismic wave types are Compressional (P),
Shear (S), Rayleigh (R) and Love (L) waves
. … Although surface wave motion penetrates to significant depth in the Earth, these types of waves do not propagate directly through the Earth’s interior.
Are P waves damaging?
P waves are compressional waves that
do not produce much damage
. They can move through any type of material and travel at almost twice the speed of S waves. High frequency P waves do not weaken, or “attenuate,” as rapidly as S waves so they retain higher frequencies when they arrive at seismic stations.
What does the P stand for in P wave?
Compressional waves are also called P-Waves, (P stands for
“primary”
) because they are always the first to arrive.
Which wave causes the least damage?
Explanation:
P waves
are the first seismic wave to reach an area. The p wave has a much smaller amplitude and lower frequencies than S waves or surface waves so they do much less damage. Surface waves tend to do more damage anyway since they are not as deep as body waves.
Which is stronger Rayleigh or Love waves?
Love waves travel with a lower velocity than P- or S- waves, but
faster than Rayleigh waves
. These waves are observed only when there is a low velocity layer overlying a high velocity layer/ sub–layers.
Which is stronger love waves or Rayleigh waves?
The horizontal shaking of Love waves is particuly damaging to the foundations of structures. The second type of surface wave is known as a Rayleigh wave. … Surface waves travel more slowly than body waves (P and S); and of the two surface waves,
Love waves generally travel faster than Rayleigh waves
.
Which is more destructive Love or Rayleigh?
Although surface waves travel more slowly than S-waves, they can be much larger in amplitude and can be the most destructive type of seismic wave. …
Love
waves cause horizontal shearing of the ground. They usually travel slightly faster than Rayleigh waves.
What are the 3 types of waves in an earthquake?
There are three major kinds of seismic waves:
P, S, and surface waves
. P and S waves together are sometimes called body waves because they can travel through the body of the earth, and are not trapped near the surface. A P wave is a sound wave traveling through rock.
Are Love waves the slowest?
Love waves can also cause horizontal shearing of the ground. They usually travel slightly faster than Rayleigh waves, at a speed that is usually
about 10% slower than S-waves
, but like S-waves, they cannot spread through water. Love waves are particularly damaging to the foundations of structures.
