The most destructive seismic wave: animation of Rayleigh waves in a solid.
Rayleigh waves are a type of wave that travels in a solid, and they are known as the most destructive seismic wave. In this animation of Rayleigh waves in a solid, we view the motion of particles at the surface of the wave and progressively deeper in the material.
The surface motion in a Rayleigh waves is retrograde, meaning that the particles at the surface travel in counterclockwise ellipses as the wave propagates to the right. Deeper in the material, the eccentricity of the ellipses changes to become more narrow/vertical and the amplitude of the oscillations decreases. Finally, even deeper in the material the motion of the particles is prograde, moving in the clockwise direction as the wave propagates to the right.
