Seismic Waves

If I were to feel each of the various seismic waves reaching me, and then moving on to disturb other students more distant from the epicenter than I am, I would feel four different seismic waves.

Let's assume that I began by feeling the "body waves". Body waves are separated into P-waves and S-waves. If I felt the P-wave I would feel the Earth go through a series of expansions and contractions that travel through liquids, gasses, and solids. I would feel the P-wave before the S-wave because P-waves travel at 6 km/sec, which is faster than the S-wave's 3.5 km/sec. Once I felt the S-wave, I would feel movement up and down perpendicular to the wave propagation direction.

When I felt the "surface waves", I would feel Rayleigh waves and Love waves. The Rayleigh waves would move the surface of the Earth in a wavelike movement, lifting the surface at right angles in the direction of the wave propagation direction. As it passed me and got closer to farther students, I would feel it begin to die out. When I felt the Love wave, I would notice the Earth's surface move in a horizontal snake-like movement that would not be able to travel through water.

The two surface waves would be the most likely to disturb me. The Rayleigh wave could possibly be very destructive to the buildings around me (because of its up and down motion) and the Love waves would possibly knock the buildings off of their foundations... All of this would be extremely distracting while I'm trying to study. Hopefully whatever I'm studying for is graded on a curve.