P-wave Motion- Incorporated Research Institutions For Seismology

Contact Us MENU

• DATA

  NSF SAGE ingests, curates, and distributes geoscience data

  NSF SAGE provides management of, and access to, observed and derived data for the global earth science community.

  This includes ground motion, atmospheric, infrasonic, magnetotelluric, strain, hydrological, and hydroacoustic data.

  DATA AT NSF SAGE

  • Types of Observational Data
  • Derived Data Products

  DATA INGESTION

  • Submitting Data to NSF SAGE

  DATA ANALYTICS

  • Quality Assurance

  DATA ACCESS

  • Data Tool Matrix
  • Requesting Data from NSF SAGE
  • Data Request Tools
    • Web Services
    • Web Applications
    • Batch Request Tools
    • Realtime Data Access
  • Requesting Derived Data Products

  DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE

  • NSF SAGE Authored Software
  • Community Authored Software

  SUPPORT

  • Knowledge Base
  • Mailing Lists

• INSTRUMENTATION

  NSF SAGE operates, provides, and maintains geoscience instrumentation

  NSF SAGE facilitates seismological and geophysical research by operating and maintaining open geophysical networks and providing portable instrumentation for user-driven experiments.

  Instrumentation support includes engineering services, training, logistics, and best practices in equipment usage.

  All data collected with NSF SAGE instrumentation are made freely and openly available.

  Permanent Networks

  • Global Seismographic Network (GSN)

  Portable Instrumentation

  • PASSCAL Instrument Center
    • Seismic
    • Polar
    • Magnetotelluric
  • Seismic Source Facility

  USArray

  • Alaska Transportable Array

  Community Engagement

  • Meetings & Workshops
  • Short Courses
  • Best Practices
  • Data Quality Principles

  Collaborations

  • Greenland
  • Central Asia and the Caucasus

  New Directions

  • Research Coordination Networks
    • Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS)
    • Subduction Zones in Four Dimensions (SZ4D)
  • Wavefields Initiative
  • Rapid Response to Geohazards

  Past Projects

  • Ocean Bottom Seismic Instrument Pool (OBSIP)
  • EarthScope Project
  • GRO-Chile

• EDUCATION

  NSF SAGE provides a wide range of education, workforce, and outreach resources

  Our mission is to advance awareness and understanding of seismology and earth science while inspiring careers in geophysics.

  LEARNING & TEACHING RESOURCES

  • Recent Earthquakes Teachable Moments
  • Lessons/Demonstrations
  • Educational Software/Webtools
  • Videos | Animations | Animated GIFs
  • Posters | Fact Sheets
  • Educational Seismographs

  LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

  • Student Internships
  • Teacher Professional Development
  • Webinars

  PUBLIC OUTREACH

  • Public Displays
  • Distinguished Lectures
  • Day in a Life of a Seismologist
  • ShakeAlert® System

  EXPLORE EARTHQUAKE DATA

  • Recent Earthquakes
  • Earthquake Browser
  • Station Monitor
  • Wave Visualizations
  • View Seismograms

• ABOUT

  Established in 2018, NSF’s Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE) is a distributed, multi-user national facility operated by EarthScope that provides state of-the-art seismic and related geophysical instrumentation and services to support research and education in the geosciences.

  ABOUT EarthScope

  • Vision/Mission
  • Membership
  • Governance
  • Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
  • News

  COMMUNITY

  • Becoming a Member
  • Mailing Lists

  EVENTS

  • Workshops | Short Courses
  • Calendar

  PUBLICATIONS

  • How to Cite NSF SAGE

  EarthScope ORGANIZATION

  • Contact Us

• Home
• InClass
• Animation
• Pwave motion

• Resource
• 18 Related Resources
  • Lessons
  • Animations
  • Posters
  • Software-Web-Apps
  • Videos

P-wave Motion

3s Novice

Resource Files

• Animation

Download Animation 94KB

Seismic P waves are also called compressional or longitudinal waves, they compress and expand (oscillate) the ground back and forth in the direction of travel, like sound waves that move back and forth as the waves travel from source to receiver. P wave is the fastest wave.

Particle motion consists of alternating compression and dilation. Particle motion is parallel to the direction of propagation (longitudinal). Material returns to its original shape after wave passes.

Animation by Larry Braile,Purdue University.

Related Lessons

Earthquakes... Like Ripples on Water?

Working in both small groups and as a whole class, students investigate the classic Earth science analogy: "Seismic waves radiate outward from an earthquake's epicenter like ripples on water". A discrepant image connects the unfamiliar concept of the spreading out of seismic waves to the more familiar scenario of ripples on water radiating outwards in all directions after a droplet falls onto a pool.

Lesson Novice Exploring Seismic Waves with Slinkys

The slinky is an effective tool for the demonstration seismic wave characteristics and wave propagation. Slinkys can be used both individually and in various combinations to demonstration different concepts.

Lesson Novice Human Wave Demo—Modeling P & S waves in Solids & Liquids

Remember the “stadium wave,” when one person stands and raises his hands in the air and the motion is translated completely around the arena? This simple kinesthetic demonstration uses a similar principal by sending seismic waves through a line of people to illustrate the difference between P waves and S waves propogating through various materials. Lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, students to "become" the material that P and S waves travel through so that once "performed," the principles of seismic waves will not be easily forgotten.

Lesson Novice

Related Animations

1-Component Seismogram: Building responds to P, S, surface waves

Seismic waves travel through the earth to a single seismic station. Scale and movement of the seismic station are greatly exaggerated to depict the relative motion recorded by the seismogram as P, S, and surface waves arrive.

Animation Novice 3-Component Seismogram Records Seismic-wave Motion

We use exaggerated motion of a building (seismic station) to show how the ground moves during an earthquake, and why it is important to measure seismic waves using 3 components: vertical, N-S, and E-W. Before showing an actual distant earthquake, we break down the three axes of movement to clarify the 3 seismograms.

Animation Novice 4-station Seismograph Network Records a Single Earthquake

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, B, C, and D. 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 though sensitive equipment records their arrival.

Animation Novice 4-station Seismograph Network; No Cartoon House Bounce

This companion to the animation "Four-Station Seismograph network" shows the arrival of seismic waves through select wave paths through the Earth (P and S waves) and over the surface of the Earth. The movement at distant stations occurs at a microscopic scale. While that doesn't result in noticeable movements of the buildings, the arrivals are recorded on sensitive seismometers.

Animation Novice Earthquake Wave Analogies: LIKE ripples on water

Exploration of how an earthquake is LIKE ripples on/in water. Dr. Geophysics guides you through the simple physics of potential energy and energy release. Analogies are a useful instructional strategy, especially in the science classroom. In this case, the analog is a drop of water hovering above and then falling into a pool of water, while the target is an earthquake.

Animation Novice Earthquake Wave Analogies: UNLIKE ripples on/in water

Part 2/2 Comparing seismic waves to ripples in water. This animation explores how seismic waves are UNLIKE ripples on water. Dr. Geophysics helps explain 4 significant differences.

Animation Novice Seismic Shadow Zone: Basic Introduction

Seismic shadow zones have taught us much about the inside of the earth. This shows how P waves travel through solids and liquids, but S waves are stopped by the liquid outer core.

Animation Novice Seismic Shadow Zones vs Light Shadows

The wave properties of light are used as an analogy to help us understand seismic-wave behavior.

Animation Novice Seismic Shadow Zones: P wave

The shadow zone is the area of the earth from angular distances of 104 to 140 degrees from a given earthquake that does not receive any direct P waves. The different phases show how the initial P wave changes when encountering boundaries in the Earth.

Animation Novice Seismic Shadow Zones: S wave shadow zone

The shadow zone results from S waves being stopped entirely by the liquid core. Three different S-wave phases show how the initial S wave is stopped (damped), or how it changes when encountering boundaries in the Earth.

Animation Novice

Related Posters

Earthquakes... Like Ripples on Water?

This poster combines a visualization of ground motion resulting from the February 21, 2008 M 6.0 earthquake that occurred near Wells, NV, with the image of a faucet to illustrate a classic Earth science functional analogy: "Seismic waves radiate outward from an earthquake's epicenter like ripples on water".

Poster Novice

Related Software-Web-Apps

Earthquakes... Like ripples on water?

An interactive website, where one can investigate the classic Earth science analogy; "Seismic waves radiate outward from an earthquake's epicenter like ripples on water".

Software-Web-App Novice

Related Videos

Seismic Slinky: Modeling P and S waves in the classroom

A video demonstration of how a slinky can be a good model for illustrating P & S seismic waves movement.

Video Novice Seismic Waves: P, S, and Surface

Video lecture on wave propagation and speeds of three fundamental kinds of seismic waves.

Video Novice Types of Seismic Wave Paths Through the Earth Video Novice

We encourage the reuse and dissemination of the material on this site as long as attribution is retained. To this end the material on this site, unless otherwise noted, is offered under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license

Quick Links

• Mailing Lists
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service
• Comments about this page

Directorates

• Instrumentation Services
• Data Services
• Engagement

Connect

Contact us EarthScope Consortium operates the NSF Geodetic Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (GAGE) and NSF Seismological Facility for the Advancement of Geoscience (SAGE). Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.