Effects of the free surface on shear wavetrains

Abstract

The behaviour of shear-waves is of great importance in identifying and investigating seismic anisotropy in the Earth. However, shear wavetrains recorded at the Earth's surface do not always reflect the motion at depth, introducing practical problems of interpretation. Shear wavetrains incident on the surface of an isotropic half-space at angles less than critical (about 35°) are broadly preserved, but at greater angles substantial distortions can occur. For stations situated close to the source, as in local earthquake studies, the local SP phase, a radially polarized precursor to S, may occur. The behaviour at the surface of an anisotropic half-space is further complicated by the divergence of phase and energy propagation vectors. All of these complications suggest that detailed seismogram modelling is essential to any study of shear wave propagation in the Earth, and in particular to investigations of anisotropy-induced shear-wave splitting.