The transmission of Rayleigh waves across an ocean floor with two surface layers

The theoretical part of this paper is a discussion of the propagation of waves of Rayleigh type in an elastic medium with a horizontal double surface layer, above which is a uniform layer of liquid This model is based on seismic determinations of the velocities of explosion waves in the layers below the ocean bottom, and the equation giving the wave velocity as a function of wave length is derived as a determinantal equation of the eleventh order. The numerical solution of this equation and the application to the propagation of Rayleigh waves across the ocean floor will be given in Part II.