Geography & Earth
Advanced

Seismic Wave Speed

Speed of an elastic wave through rock.

Formula

v=Eρv = \sqrt{\frac{E}{\rho}}

Variables

EElastic modulus
\rhoDensity

Example

Typical crustal P-waves travel about 6 km/s

Did You Know?

S-waves cannot cross the liquid outer core, and that shadow zone is how we first proved Earth's core is molten.

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