surface wave
Americannoun
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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.
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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.
Militarism is only the surface wave, compared with the deeper swells of the Afghan cultural story.
From New York Times • Oct. 3, 2011
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 • Mar. 28, 2011
Equipped with this, she need not necessarily follow a surface wave all day; she simply drops the bomb down through this wave; at least she does under certain conditions.
From Our Navy in the War by Perry, Lawrence
It wasn't exactly an A-bomb, but the spray hit us a half mile away, and the surface wave swamped us.
From Tabby by Marks, Winston K.
Now, the surface wave is the path marked by a submarine on the surface of the water.
From Our Navy in the War by Perry, Lawrence
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.
