Investigation 14.1: Using Waves to Study the Earth's Interior

For this investigation, we accessed Flash movies on the iBooks and used them as simulations of earthquake events, sending P-waves and S-waves through the interior of model planets.  We added to our knowledge of P-waves and S-waves, learning that S-waves do not travel through liquids. All of our knowledge on earthquake waves, we inferred how the interior of each model planet was arranged.

We used the following worksheet to play through the simulations:

Investigation 14.1 Worksheet

For each simulation, we sketched out the waves and what we thought the interior of the model planet looked like.

Here are the simulations that we used during the investigation.  They should open in a new web browser window.  You will need Adobe Flash Player installed to see them.

Simulation 1
Simulation 2
Simulation 3
Simulation 4
Simulation 5
Simulation 6
Simulation 7

In addition to the above simulations, I found the following interactive simulation a great way to review earthquake waves, and to see how S-waves can also travel as surface waves, and how destructive they can be.

Seismic Wave Motion Simulation

I hope you find this useful!