4 Station Seismic Network

We
use a cow and a tree in this narrated cartoon for
fun and to emphasize that seismic waves traveling
away from an earthquake occur everywhere, not
just at seismic stations. A person would feel a large
earthquake only at station A near the epicenter.
Stations B, C, D, and the cow are too far from the
earthquake to feel the seismic waves. Both the scale
of the buildings (and cow) and the amplitude of the
movements are exaggerated. The cartoonish amplified
ground motions show the compressive (up-down in
this case) P wave, the shearing (back-forth) S wave,
and the rolling surface wave motions recorded by
sensitive instruments. Notice that Station D does not
record an S wave because shear waves cannot travel
through Earths liquid outer core.

More info at:
http://www.iris.edu/hq/programs/education_and_outreach/aotm/10

Category:

Education

Tags:

• iris
• seismology
• aotm
• education
• earthquakes
• animation