Seismic waves are waves that travel through the Earth due to earthquakes or explosions. There are three main types of seismic waves: P waves, which travel fastest; S waves, which travel slower than P waves; and surface waves, which are the slowest and cause the most damage. Seismographs can detect and measure seismic waves, recording the ground shaking on paper to indicate the strength of the waves.

2. Definition
Waves that travel through the Earth, most often
as the result of a tectonic earthquake,
sometimes from an explosion.

3. - Seismic Waves happen when earthquakes occur.
- Seismic Waves consists of three different waves.
- They are known as…..
- Primary Waves
- Secondary Waves
- Surface Waves
- Primary waves (P waves) travel the fastest and can go through any solid,
liquid, and gas. The speeds of P waves depends on the material in which
it is moving through. Also they called elastic waves.
- Secondary waves (S waves) are fast except they do not travel as fast as P
waves. S waves travel through solids although they can’t go through
liquids and gases. S waves speed up when they pass through denser
material. It is also called a shear wave.
- Surface Waves (L waves) are the slowest seismic waves. These waves start
off at the epicenter, and then move along and travel on the Earth’s center
into the ocean. L waves cause the most damage because they twist and
bend the Earth’s surface. Another name for surface waves are Love
waves or Rayleigh waves.
- Seismic Waves can not be seen, but are able to be felt.

4. Some famous locations that seismic waves occur in large areas are in the
west. The Seismic Risk in the United States of these three states are called
California, Nevada, and Washington. Some places to the east of this area
that seismic waves happen are Utah, Idaho, and Montana. South Carolina,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Rhode Island, and Vermont
experience seismic waves as well.
The areas in the
brown is where
the major Seismic
Risks happen.

5. HISTORICAL INFORMATION
In 1975, a prediction was made by the Chinese that an earthquake was going to
take place in their country that saved thousands of people. It was very accurate
and from that time people thought about what would happen if they could do this
all the time. Well, their results could be that people can be saved, buildings and
cities could be planned to be made, and they would know where not to live or
stay. Attempts have already been made in some cities where they have built and
constructed earthquake-proof buildings. Scientists look forward to advance their
capability and foresee earthquakes from happening. Seismic waves only come
about because of these disastrous earthquakes. In 1893, the seismograph was
invented by John Milne that could detect and measure seismic waves. The way
a seismograph works is that there is a pen attached to a ball and it can record
any information on paper because of the straight lines it makes. It makes the
lines pertaining to the ground shaking and how much movement is happening.
The higher the lines are, the stronger the wave is. This is measured in
seismograms. Seismograph networks can also locate earthquakes on where
they are already happening.

6.  Connections to seismic waves are earthquakes because that’s
what obviously causes seismic waves. Also, seismographs is a
connection because this instrument shows how powerful these
waves can be. In addition, seismic waves can also be
connected to the Richter scale. This reason is because
earthquake strength is calculated with this device. This is very
similar to the seismograph because they both measure
strengths of the earthquake and the seismic waves. Some
additional information about seismic waves is that the scientists
in China think that they can predict earthquakes by the change
in the behavior of certain animals. For example, if an animal is
out in the open and decides to look for shelter or go
underground, this could mean that they are maybe trying to
escape from the earthquake that results the seismic waves.
Furthermore, they think that before a major earthquake strikes,
speeds of P waves and S waves change so this is another way
to predict them.

7.  Hall, Prentice. Dynamic Earth. 2nd Edition. Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: A Division of Simon & Schuster, 1994.
Print.
 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/532925/seis
mic-wave
 http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/seismi
c-waves.html

8.  What are the functions of 2 QUESTIONS
the seismograph and how These are the two
questions that are related
does it work? to my topic.
 What are the three
different waves that
seismic waves consist of
and how fast do they
each travel?