A1.19
(i) From the surface of a flat Earth, an explosive source emits P-waves downward into a horizontal homogeneous elastic layer of uniform thickness and P-wave speed overlying a lower layer of infinite depth and P-wave speed , where . A line of seismometers on the surface records the travel time as a function of distance from the source for the various arrivals along different ray paths.
Sketch the ray paths associated with the direct, reflected and head waves arriving at a given position. Calculate the travel times of the direct and reflected waves, and sketch the corresponding travel-time curves. Hence explain how to estimate and from the recorded arrival times. Explain briefly why head waves are only observed beyond a minimum distance from the source and why they have a travel-time curve of the form for .
[You need not calculate or .]
(ii) A plane -wave in a homogeneous elastic solid has displacement proportional to . Express the slowness vector in terms of the wavevector and . Deduce an equation for in terms of and the S-wave speed .
A homogeneous elastic layer of uniform thickness , S-wave speed and shear modulus has a stress-free surface and overlies a lower layer of infinite depth, S-wave speed and shear modulus . Find the vertical structure of Love waves with displacement proportional to , and show that the horizontal phase speed obeys
By sketching both sides of the equation as a function of in show that at least one mode exists for every value of .