THE SOUNDS OF EARTHQUAKES
Abstract
One of the lesser known effects of an earthquake is its sound. Low-frequency sounds like rumbling, thunder, and banging are most often heard during weak earthquakes, if the observer is outdoors and close to the epicentre. People are always unpleasantly surprised by such sounds, as they are always surprised by an earthquake, but these types of sounds are non-hazardous natural phenomena and are actually present during almost every earthquake. When listeners are outdoors and hear the sound of the earthquake, they are most often aware of the oscillation of the ground. Since the velocity of seismic waves in the Earth is several times greater than the speed of sound in the air, the simultaneity of the two phenomena is a direct indication that the sound source is very close to the listener. The sound source is the earthquake itself; more precisely, the ground oscillating due to the earthquake in the immediate vicinity of the listener.
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