Natural disaster seismic waves. At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration, shaking, and sometimes displacement of the ground. Earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults. The underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the "seismic focus". The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the "epicenter". Earthquakes by themselves rarely kill people or wildlife. It is usually the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires, tsunamis (seismic sea waves) and volcanoes. Many of these could possibly be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and planning. When natural erosion, human
Seismic anisotropy Seismic anisotropy Seismic anisotropy is a term used in seismology to describe the directional dependence of the velocity of seismic waves in a medium (rock) within the Earth. A material is said to be anisotropic if the value of one or more of its properties varies with direction. Anisotropy differs from the property called heterogeneity in that anisotropy is the variation in values with direction at a point while heterogeneity is the variation in values between two or more points. Seismic Anisotropy can be defined as the dependence of seismic velocity on direction or upon angle. General anisotropy is described