The paper investigates the generation of SH-type waves due to a sudden application
of a stress discontinuity which moves after creation at the anisotropic layer of finite
thickness overlying an initially stressed isotropic half-space. The displacements are
obtained in exact form by the method due to Cagniard modified by de Hoop. Two
cases of shearing stress discontinuities are considered. The numerical results are
obtained for a particular model and discussed by plotting graphs for displacement
component with the elapsed time of the disturbance for different values
of initial stress and also for different values of initial time at which pulses
arrive.