Seismic wave Seismic wave Seismic waves are waves of energy that travel through the Earth's layers, and are a result of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, magma movement, large landslides and large man-made explosions that give out low-frequency acoustic energy. Many other natural and anthropogenic sources create low-amplitude waves commonly referred to as ambient vibrations. Seismic waves are studied by geophysicists called seismologists. Seismic wave fields are recorded by a seismometer, hydrophone (in water), or accelerometer. The propagation velocity of the waves depends on density and elasticity of the medium.Velocity tends to increase with depth and ranges from approximately 2 to 8 km/s in
Seismic trace Seismic trace In seismology, a seismic trace refers to the recorded curve from a single seismograph when measuring ground movement. The name comes from the curve plotted by a seismograph as the paper roll rotated and the needle left a trace from which information about the subsurface could be extracted. Today's instruments record the data digitally and the word trace has come to mean the digital curve. The recorded seismic trace is considered the real part of the complex trace. By phase shifting the recorded trace by 90 degrees, we can obtain the imaginary part of the complex trace. The