SURFACE WAVES ( L-WAVES): UPSC Daily Important Topic | 31 January 2022

SURFACE WAVES ( L-WAVES)

✓ The body waves interact with the surface rocks and generate new set of waves called surface waves (long or L-waves). These waves move only along the surface.

✓ Surface Waves are also called long period waves because of their long wavelength.

✓ They are low-frequency transverse waves (shear waves).

✓ They develop in the immediate neighbourhood of the epicentre and affect only the surface of the earth and die out at smaller depth.

✓ They lose energy more slowly with distance than the body waves because they travel only across the surface unlike the body waves which travel in all directions.

✓ Particle motion of surface waves (amplitude) is larger than that of body waves, so surface waves are the most destructive among the earthquake waves.

✓They are slowest among the earthquake waves and are recorded last on the seismograph.