NAME: Khlynne Mark A.

Guieb

COURSE&BLOCK: BSMT 2C NON

Seismic Waves and Tidal Conditions

Seismic Waves

Seismic waves are low-frequency acoustic waves that flow through Earth’s layers as a result of
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma migration, huge landslides, and large man-made explosions.
Geophysicists known as seismologists’ study seismic waves.

Four types of Seismic Waves

 P Wave—the primary body wave; the first seismic wave detected by seismographs; able to
move through both liquid and solid rock.

 S Wave—secondary body waves that oscillate the ground perpendicular to the direction of wave
travel. They travel about 1.7 times slower than P waves. Because liquids will not sustain shear
stresses, S waves will not travel through liquids like water, molten rock, or the Earth’s outer core.
S waves produce vertical and horizontal motion in the ground surface.

 Rayleigh Waves—surface waves that move in an elliptical motion, producing both a vertical
and horizontal component of motion in the direction of wave propagation.

 Love Waves—surface waves that move parallel to the Earth’s surface and perpendicular to the
direction of wave propagation.

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.
Tidal Conditions

Tides are the alternating rise and fall of the sea surface. They are due mainly to the gravitational
attraction (pull) of the moon and sun on the rotating earth. Two high and two low tides occur daily around
Britain and, with average weather conditions, their movements can be predicted with considerable
accuracy.

Calculation

An efficient way of guesstimating how much water there is, at any given time of day, over a
particular point. The rule of twelfths works like this; take the difference in height between the high and
low tide on that day, and divide that by 12 equal chunks.