The earthquakes release seismic waves in the form of pressure and shear
waves (or P and S waves). When P
waves leave a solid object, like the crust, and enter the atmosphere, they take
the form of sound waves (S waves can't travel through liquids or gases). However,
P waves typically register below the 20-hertz threshold for human hearing
[source:USGS]. Scientists describe waves that fall
in this range as infrasound.
People hear an earthquake and do not hear the seismic
waves released. Rather people feel the difference between the sound produced
when seismic waves move through the solid matter like the rumbling of a building
and its contents. Rather one would not
be able to detect these sounds nor feel the infrasound waves from an airplane. Thanks
to the Physicists call attenuation, the waves gradually lose intensity as they
move through the medium of the air.
Likewise the seismic waves reached the cruising
altitude of 30,000 feet (usually the airplanes fly), they would be so diminishing by their journey
through the medium of rocks and air that the noise and the motion of the
airplane would overpower the waves. So you would not be able to hear the
earthquake from the aircraft and will not certainly feel it.
