Shear wave, transverse wave that occurs in an elastic medium when it is subjected to periodic shear. Shear is the change of shape, without change of volume, of a layer of the substance, produced by a pair of equal forces acting in opposite directions along the two faces of the layer. If the medium is elastic, the layer will resume its original shape after shear, adjacent layers will undergo shear, and the shifting will be propagated as a wave. The velocity (ν) of a shear wave is equal to the square root of the ratio of shear modulus (G), a constant of the medium, to density (ρ) of the medium, ν = √G/ρ.
Both shear (transverse) and compressional (longitudinal) waves are transmitted in bulk matter. Shear waves travel at about half the speed of compressional waves (e.g., in iron, 3,200 metres per second compared with 5,200 metres per second). The shear-wave velocity in a crystal varies according to the direction of propagation and the plane of polarization (i.e., plane of vibration) because of the variation of shear modulus in a crystal.