Why do primary waves travel faster

As a rule of thumb: Multiply the time between the two jolts by 5 and you get the distance to the focus in miles. Looking at a seismogram of the Alamo earthquake Fig. Applying the rule of thumb, we get a distance to the earthquake focus of approximately The result is pretty good, as the actual distance is exactly Seismo Blog P-waves and S-waves - which are faster? Figure 2. Figure 3. The surface waves are generally the largest recorded from an earthquake.

Body waves in the earth's interior lose their amplitude rapidly as they get farther from the earthquake because they spread out inside the volume of the earth. Surface waves, however, spread out more slowly and only on the earth's surface. 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. Bolt, W. 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.

It can travel through solids and liquids. An S wave is a transverse wave and travels slower than a P wave, thus arriving after the P wave. S waves can only travel through solids, and as a result do not travel through the liquid core of the Earth. P waves Longitudinal Fast moving Travel through liquids and solids P waves can pass through the Earth's core S waves Transverse Slower moving than P waves Travel through solids only S waves do not pass through the Earth's core S waves cannot pass through the liquid outer core, but P waves can.

Question Compare the properties of P waves, S waves and surface seismic waves.