Synonym: Secondary wave (a-wave) = Shear wave
A body wave caused by oscillation of a shear stress in a matter and as such resulting in strain oscillations perpendicular to the direction of p-wave propagation.
In terms of corpuscular structure of the matter the p-wave is characterised by the fact that particles of the matter are moving back and forth along the p-wave travel direction (see Fig. 1).
Type of elastic wave propagating through the solid body (see ).
s-waves can propagate through solids only and move slower than p-wave, hence the term "seconday wave".
See also
Physics / Mechanics / Continuum mechanics / Mechanical waves / Body wave
[ p-wave ]