Abstract Most exploration seismology involves the analysis of P-wave reflections. For waves traveling at near-vertical incidence in a horizontally layered medium, these reflections represent most of the energy recorded by vertical geophones. In marine recording with hydrophone streamers, seismic recordings will consist essentially of P-waves. Conventional seismology has analyzed P-wave reflections with considerable success. Acoustic approximations to the general theories of elastic waves have been fruitful. Nevertheless, a more complete description of earth's properties is possible through elastic-wave theory, which requires that we consider both P-waves and shear (S-) waves. For this analysis, we use multicomponent recording rather than conventional vertical-component recording.