EARTHQUAKE: HOW ITS ENERGY TRANSLATED?

The energy released by an earthquake is transferred as wave energy and it is transmitted for long distances. When an earthquake occurs, two basic types of waves are produced: body waves and surface waves. Body Waves Body waves propagate within a body of rock and travel through the interior of the Earth. They are of two types: P-wave and S-wave. P-wave It is also known as primary, compressional or longitudinal wave. Its motion is the same as that of a sound wave. As it spreads out, it alternately pushes (compresses) and pulls (dilates) the rock (Figure 1). The motion of an individual particle that a P-wave travels through is parallel to the direction of travel.

Figure 1: Ground motion near the ground surface due to P-waves S-wave It is also known as secondary, shear or transverse wave. It shears the rock sideways at right angles to the direction of travel (Figure 2). The direction of the movement can be used to divide S-wave into two components: SV (vertical plane movement) and SH (horizontal plane movement).

Figure 2: Ground motion near the ground surface due to S-waves Since geologic materials are stiffest in compression, P-waves travel faster than Swaves and are therefore the first to arrive at a particular site. Fluids, which have no shearing stiffness, cannot sustain S-waves. Therefore their amplitude is significantly reduced in partially liquefied soil. Surface Waves Such waves correspond to ripples of water travels across a lake. They result from the interaction between body waves and the surface and surficial layers of the Earth. As the depth below the surface increases, wave displacements decrease. The most important surface waves, for engineering purposes, are Love waves and Rayleigh waves. Love Wave Its motion is essentially the same as that of S-waves that have no vertical displacement. It moves the ground from side to side in a horizontal plane but at right angles to the direction of propagation (Figure 3). Horizontal shaking of Love wave is particularly damaging to the foundations of structures. It is produced by interaction of SH-waves with a soft surficial layer and has no vertical component of particle motion.

Figure 3: Ground motion near the ground surface due to Love waves Rayleigh Wave It is like a rolling ocean wave, the pieces of material disturbed by a Rayleigh wave move both vertically and horizontally in a vertical plane pointed in the direction of travel (Figure 4). Produced by interaction of P- and SV-waves with the Earths surface, involves both vertical and horizontal particle motions.

Figure 4: Ground motion near the ground surface due to Rayleigh waves

 Surface waves travel more slowly than body waves and of the two surface waves, Love waves generally travel faster than Rayleigh waves in the same geological formation. Thus, as the waves radiate outward from the earthquake source through the rocks of the Earth, the different types of waves separate out from one another in a predictable pattern (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Seismogram recorded in the UK from a distant earthquake. This recording of the ground motion clearly shows the separate onsets of the P-, S- and surface waves.

____________________ References Bolt, B. A., Earthquakes, W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 2003. Kramer, S. L., Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering, Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey, 1996. Bozorgnia, Y., Bertero V., Earthquake Engineering: From Engineering Seismology to Performance-Based Engineering, CRC Press LLC, Florida, 2004. Naeim, F., The Seismic Design Handbook, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.