The distance between an earthquake epicenter and the location of a seismograph can be calculated because?
Jan 16, 2010
in
Earthquake Questions
10
The distance between an earthquake epicenter and the location of a seismograph can be calculated because
1. seismographs are sensitive to directions
2. earthquake waves decay at known rates
3. shear waves will not pass through liquids
4. shear waves and compression waves travel at different speeds
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
One comment
ronwizfr on January 16, 2010 at 8:58 am
The correct answer is: 4. shear waves and compression waves travel at different speeds, therefore the difference in arrival time can be used to fix the distance.
The other three are wrong because
1) seismographs can be arranged in such a way that they are sensitive to the direction, but that is not going to tell you the distance.
2) is true only if you know exactly through which layers the waves passed, which you won’t know without knowing the distance
3) is true, but again will not help to give you the distance.