Surface Wave Definition & Meaning

American

Scientific

Examples

Related Words

Synonyms surface wave American

noun

Geology.

1. a seismic wave that travels along or parallel to the earth's surface (body wave ).

surface wave Scientific

1. A seismic wave that travels across the surface of the Earth as opposed to through it. Surface waves usually have larger amplitudes and longer wavelengths than body waves, and they travel more slowly than body waves do. Love waves and Rayleigh waves are kinds of surface waves.

2. Compare body wave See Note at earthquake

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But it was so large that it sent seismic energy through the surface layers of the Martian crust, creating what’s known as a surface wave—which can reveal more information about a planet’s interior than can other types of seismic wave.

From Scientific American

Satellites provide maps of instants in time whereas surface wave gliders and underwater profiling gliders provide time series that move around underneath these maps, and can be redirected by these maps to the areas of greatest interest, Glenn says, adding that he prefers to use all three means simultaneously for “sustained sampling trajectories through this unseen world.”

From Scientific American

Militarism is only the surface wave, compared with the deeper swells of the Afghan cultural story.

From New York Times

Trapped there, a lot of the energy bounces back and then travels horizontally as a surface wave for thousands of miles, Dr. Parsons said.

From The Wall Street Journal

David Farmer, a physical oceanographer and dean of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, together with student Qiang Li, said that large amplitude, nonlinear internal waves can reach heights of 150 meters or more in the South China Sea, and the effects they have on surface wave fields ensure that they are readily observable from space.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• tsunami

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.