Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A seismic wave that travels very quickly through the earth, causing the rocks it passes through to change in volume and their particles to vibrate parallel to the direction of wave propagation. P-waves can travel through solids, liquids, and gases.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology, seismology A longitudinal compressional wave produced by an earthquake.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[P(rimary) wave, since it is the first type of wave to be detected by a seismograph after a seismic event.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From p(rimary) + wave.

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Examples

  • This automated alarm is triggered by the initial elastic P-wave of a tremor, which immediately precedes the slower but more destructive secondary wave, which then shakes the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction it is moving.

    Scientists Exploring Quake Warning Signals 2011

  • This automated alarm is triggered by the initial elastic P-wave of a tremor, which immediately precedes the slower but more destructive secondary wave, which then shakes the ground back and forth perpendicular to the direction it is moving.

    Scientists Exploring Quake Warning Signals 2011

  • It's a word that we use to describe when a P-wave and then an S-wave come together after the shock.

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2010 2010

  • That moved this car and this car was -- the movement on this car was called a P-wave.

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2010 2010

  • And the slipping causes two types of waves, an S-wave and a P-wave, and after the break, Wolf, we'll talk about how both of those could affect the people there of Haiti.

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2010 2010

  • And what is -- what is a P-wave and what is an S-wave?

    CNN Transcript Jan 12, 2010 2010

  • Overdosed on Aspartame at long last, she decided, settling her mouse-driven crosshairs onto the beginning of the P-wave portion of the newest wiggly line that she had conjured on her computer screen.

    Fault Line Andrews, Sarah 2002

  • It is often claimed that animals can detect the P-wave or ultrasonic wave generated by a big underground explosion or the rupture of an earthquake, even if the waves are too small for human senses.

    The Times of India 2010

  • Tests in California showed that after an earthquake, four to six monitoring stations recorded features of the P-wave within seven seconds after the quake had struck.

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2009

  • P-wave duration, P-wave area, and PR duration on ECG-referred to as AF predictors-by ethnicity and examined the association of these predictors with incident AF and ischemic stroke.

    theHeart.org 2009

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  • A smaller pnami.

    February 6, 2011