CoachA Rayleigh wave is a surface wave whose particle motion lies in the vertical plane containing the direction of propagation: P and vertically polarised S motions coupled by the free surface, with an elliptical particle motion, retrograde at the surface of a uniform half-space, whose amplitude decays with depth over about a wavelength. A Love wave is a surface wave whose particle motion is horizontal and perpendicular to the direction of propagation: horizontally polarised S waves trapped in layers slower than the rock below them.
