Seismic body waves in anisotropic media: reflection and refraction at a plane interface

Abstract

Summary. A formulation is derived for calculating the energy division among waves generated by plane waves incident on a boundary between generally anisotropic media. A comprehensive account is presented for P, SV and SH waves incident from an isotropic half‐space on an orthorhombic olivine half‐space, where the interface is parallel to a plane of elastic symmetry. For comparison, a less anisotropic medium having transverse isotropy with a horizontal axis of symmetry is also considered. The particle motion polarizations of waves in anisotropic medium differ greatly from the polarizations in isotropic media, and are an important diagnostic of the presence of anisotropy. Incident P and SV waves generate quasi‐SH waves, and incident SH waves generate quasi‐P and quasi‐SV waves, often of considerable relative magnitude. The direction of energy transport diverges from the propagation direction. Copyright © 1977, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved