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Surface waves span a wide frequency range, and the period of waves that are most damaging is usually 10 seconds or longer. Surface waves can travel around the globe many times from the largest earthquakes. Surface waves are caused when P waves and S waves come to the surface. Examples are the waves at the surface of water and air (ocean surface ...
A crest is a point on a surface wave where the displacement of the medium is at a maximum. A trough is the opposite of a crest, so the minimum or lowest point of the wave. When the crests and troughs of two sine waves of equal amplitude and frequency intersect or collide, while being in phase with each other, the result is called constructive ...
Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) are electromagnetic waves that travel along a metal–dielectric or metal–air interface, practically in the infrared or visible-frequency. The term "surface plasmon polariton" explains that the wave involves both charge motion in the metal (" surface plasmon ") and electromagnetic waves in the air or ...
An example of a surface wave would be waves in a pool, or in an ocean, lake, or any other type of water body. There are two types of surface waves, namely Rayleigh waves and Love waves . Rayleigh waves, also known as ground roll , are waves that travel as ripples with motion similar to those of waves on the surface of water.
Ground waves propagate parallel to and adjacent to the surface of the Earth, and are capable of covering long distances by diffracting around the Earth's curvature. This radiation is also known as the Norton surface wave , or more properly the Norton ground wave , because ground waves in radio propagation are not confined to the surface.
An animation of the overtaking of two solitary waves according to the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony equation – or BBM equation, a model equation for (among others) long surface gravity waves. The wave heights of the solitary waves are 1.2 and 0.6, respectively, and their velocities are 1.4 and 1.2.
Due to their higher speed, the P and S waves generated by an earthquake arrive before the surface waves. However, the particle motion of surface waves is larger than that of body waves, so the surface waves tend to cause more damage. In the case of Rayleigh waves, the motion is of a rolling nature, similar to an ocean surface wave. The ...
For example, if a stone is thrown into the middle of a very still pond, a circular pattern of waves with a quiescent center appears in the water, also known as a capillary wave. The expanding ring of waves is the wave group or wave packet , within which one can discern individual waves that travel faster than the group as a whole.