Love Waves

I've been a bit blog-lazy lately, but I'll see if I can get back in the swing.

The occasional posts by the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory are well researched, written, and composed.  The latest BSL blog post was about surface (aka L) waves, waves that travel near the surface of the earth. Body waves, so-called P and S waves, are push-pull and shear waves that travel through the Earth's interior. The two types of surface waves, Love and Rayleigh waves, are named after physicists A.E.H. Love and Lord Rayleigh, who worked out the theory of their existence. Body waves provide an "x-ray"-type information of the Earth's interior, while surface waves provide models of the Earth's crust.

I heart Love waves.

Sending you Love waves for Valentine's Day

Click above for a larger image. Or look at an animation.

These come from Lawrence Braile, at Purdue University, who has lots of good educational materials about earthquakes and seismology online. He also tells us the following: Love waves are one type of surface waves. They are characterized by transverse horizontal motion, perpendicular to the direction of propagation and generally parallel to the Earth’s surface. The velocity of these waves are from 2.0-4.5 km/s depending on the frequency of the propagating wave. Love waves exist because of the Earth’s free surface. They are largest in amplitude at the surface and decrease in amplitude with depth. Love waves are dispersive, that is, the wave velocity is dependent on frequency, with low frequencies normally propagating at higher velocity. The depth of penetration of the Love waves is also dependent on frequency, with lower frequencies penetrating to greater depth.

May you all enjoy much Love for Valentine's Day!