Historical-Comparative Glossary of Some Common Terms in Seismology

Rayleigh wave
First discribed by Lord Rayleigh in 1885, these are the earthquake waves that most closely resemble water waves. Raleigh waves are formed by rock particles moving foreward, up, backward, and down, transcribing elliptical orbits oriented in a vertical plane that contains the direction of wave prpagation. (BOLT 1993)

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