Cubic non-linearity and longitudinal surface solitary waves

It is shown that for some seismic media both quadratic and cubic non-linearities should be taken into account in the governing equation for longitudinal waves. The new equation is obtained to account for non-linear surface waves in a medium surrounding a non-linearly elastic rod. Exact solutions of the equation allow us to describe simultaneous propagation of tensile and compressive localized strain waves. Various interactions between these waves give rise to both the multi-bump and “Mexican hat” localized wave structures closer to the surface waves recently observed in experiments.