Are earthquakes transverse or longitudinal waves? Well, a slab is pushing its way through the earth. Imagine a student pushing his way down the halls while it is crowded with other students. As the student pushes a student, the student who gets pushes bumps another student and pushes him. This is a longitudinal wave. It means that earthquakes are longitudinal waves, like sound waves.

 

As the slab pushes itself along, other rocks are pushed up, out of the way of the slab. Again, imagine the pushing student during passing of classes. As the student pushes another student, there happened to be an open class nearby, and the student got pushed into the class. This motion is perpendicular to the direction of the pushing student. This is a transverse wave.

 

Earthquakes are both transverse and longitudinal.