Love and Rayleigh waves
from the Waves page in Quake Basics

Some earthquake waves move only along the surface of the earth. Love waves shake the surface side-to-side. Rayleigh waves move the surface of the earth around in a circle, forward and down then back and up. This is the same as the motion in an ocean wave. Deeper in the ground, Rayleigh and Love waves get smaller. Underground miners seldom feel the motion of these surface waves.



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