Reflection maxima for reflections from single interfaces

Abstract

At a workshop on refraction and wide‐angle reflections, Hilterman (1985) pointed out that, in contrast to the plane‐wave case, when there is a point source, a P-wave reflected from a plane interface attains its maximum amplitude at an offset greater than that corresponding to the critical angle (Figure 1). The same conclusion had been drawn earlier by Červený (1967). However, neither Červený’s results, which were based on very complicated mathematical expressions derived by Brekhovskikh (1960), nor Hilterman’s computer‐generated data shed light on the physics implied by the shifted maximum.