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.
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