Want this question answered?
Given the difference in arrival times, you can determine the distance from the epicenter.
The distance between a seismic station and the earthquake epicenter is determined from the S-P interval, which is the time difference between the time of arrival of the first P wave and the first S wave.
Your standing on it! P-waves travel faster than S-waves through the Earth. As such the further away a seismometer station is from the epicentre of an Earthquake, the larger the difference between arrival times will be. By the same logic this means that the closer you get to the epicentre, the smaller the difference in arrival time will be until your at the epicentre when the difference will be zero!
The difference between the arrival times increases as the distance from an earthquake epicentre increases as S-waves travel more slowly than P-waves so the greater the distance the further they lag behind.
No. Seismologists (a type of geophysicist) use the difference in the arrival time of P and S waves to estimate the distance from the seismometer station to the epicentre of the earthquake.
The difference in arrival times of P and S waves.
The distance to the epicenter
Given the difference in arrival times, you can determine the distance from the epicenter.
The difference in arrival time is used to find the distance to an Earthquake's epicentre.
The epicenter can be determined by measuring the time difference between the arrival of P and S waves, and then calculating the distance of the epicenter from each of the 3 stations. Once you have estimated the distance for each station you then draw a circle around each one. The place where the circles meet or intersect, is the epicenter.
The distance between a seismic station and the earthquake epicenter is determined from the S-P interval, which is the time difference between the time of arrival of the first P wave and the first S wave.
The distance between a seismic station and the earthquake epicenter is determined from the S-P interval, which is the time difference between the time of arrival of the first P wave and the first S wave.
P-waves (Primary) and S-waves (Secondary). Using the difference in time between the arrival of P- and S-waves, you can then determine the distance from the epicenter. Once you've determined the distance from the epicenter of three different stations, you'll be able to triangulate the epicenter (the point where all three circles cross).
The farther apart the arrival times of the different waves are, the farther away the earthquake is. :)
4. shear waves and compression waves travel at different speeds, therefore the difference in arrival time can be used to fix the distance.
4,000 kilometers
This value is related to the distance of the seismometer station from the earthquake's epicentre. The larger the difference in arrival times, the greater the distance.