Propagation of Leaking Modes in a Plane Seismic Waveguide. Propagation of Leaking Interface Waves

Author: Phinney, Robert Alden

Year: 1961

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Press, Frank

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Geophysics

DOI: 10.7907/5TG9-XN02

Abstract

The work of Rosenbaum describing propagation or imperfectly trapped (leaking) modes in an acoustic waveguide is extended to two problems of geophysical importance. The problem of a liquid layer coupled to an elastic halfspace is considered first, in a paper entitled: Propagation of Leaking Modes in the Crustal Waveguide: The Oceanic PL wave. Theoretical results obtained in this first paper may be applied, after slight generalization, to the most general type of plane seismic waveguide. In a second paper, entitled: Propagation of Leaking Interface Waves, we discuss these generalizations and apply them to the fundamental problem of pulse propagation along a plane interface. The most important result of both papers is the description of the earliest-arriving signal traveling in the waveguide as a result of a transient point excitation.

Numerical results for both problems were obtained by solving the complex period equation on the Burroughs 220 computer. The programming framework and the numerical methods used are discussed in a third section of this thesis.

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