SH-wave travel times in a crustal waveguide ($t_m(x)=\sqrt{x^2+(2mh{)}^2}/{\beta }_1$)

For a flat layer of thickness $h$ and shear speed ${\beta }_1$ above a faster half-space of speed ${\beta }_2$, unfolding $m$ down-and-up traversals gives the displayed reflected-ray travel time. Its slope is the horizontal ray slowness. At $x=2mh\tan i_c$, with $\sin i_c={\beta }_1/{\beta }_2$, the corresponding head-wave branch $t=x/{\beta }_2+2mh\sqrt{{\beta }_1^{-2}-{\beta }_2^{-2}}$ is tangent to this curve.

For subcritical incidence, a reflected SH-wave loses energy into the faster substrate. Postcritical incidence has an evanescent substrate tail and no outgoing normal energy flux in the ideal lossless model. Repeated reflections can then interfere to form Love waves. Individual reflected rays are contributions to the field; normal-mode frequencies require the reflection-phase condition and are not supplied by a geometrical travel-time curve alone.