“…The use of the finite difference method in solving wave propagation problems has been studied extensively by Alterman and her colleagues (ALTERMAN and KARAL, 1968;LOWENTHAL and ALTERMAN, 1972). The method was later applied to solve wave propagation problems in realistic models (BOORE, 1972;MUNASINGHE and FARNELL, 1973;ALFORD et al, 1974;ILAN et al, 1979;FuYUKI and MATSUMOTO, 1980;PEREYRA et al, 1980;BOORE et al, 1981). These studies aim at body wave or Love wave problems.…”