- journal_title：Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
- Contributor：Masahiko Fuyuki ; Masayoshi Nakano
- Publisher：Seismological Society of America
- Date：1984-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- journal_abbrev：Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America
- issn：0037-1106
- volume：74
- issue：3
- firstpage：893
- section：Articles
Transmission coefficients of the Rayleigh wave past an upward step change are obtained by the finite difference scheme. In the region of large height of a step relative to a wavelength h/λ, individual phases of the transmitted wave are investigated and the dominant wave in each phase is clarified. For smaller values of h/λ, we examine to what extent the contribution of the diffracted wave due to a step change accounts for the discrepancy between the finite difference results and the prediction of the theory of Mal and Knopoff. In order to explain the transmission coefficients with h/λ close to zero, a boundary-perturbation method is extended to the second order.