An overview of seismic wave attenuation is given, including experimental method, attenuation mechanism and application of wave attenuation in Earth science. Two important experimental methods of measuring wave attenuation are introduced. The first method is spectral ratio technique. It is effective for measuring samples with high attenuation. However it has some defects. For example, it is useful for measuring sample’s relative attenuation. And it can’t measure absolute attenuation. The second method is interferometric technique. It surmounts the insufficiency of spectral ratio technique. It can measure sample’s absolute attenuation. But it only measures attenuation of melten samples. There are many factors that control attenuation, including mechanism of grain boundary damping and influence of high temperature. The mechanism of grain boundary damping is divided into two parts that one is the contact manner of grains, the other is intercrystalline thermal currents. Moreover there are much fruit of studying attenuation, which involves the variation of Q with temperature, pressure, and depth, and the attenuation anisotropy of rocks. The investigation of attenuation is important for estimating the structure of rocks and the internal structure of the Earth. At the same time it is useful for judging the elastic properties of rocks including volume modulus, elastic coefficient and so on. So it is necessary to study wave attenuation, especially at high temperature and high pressure.