On Backus Average for Generally Anisotropic Layers

In this paper, following the Backus (in J. Geophys. Res. 67(11):4427–4440, 1962) approach, we examine expressions for elasticity parameters of a homogeneous generally anisotropic medium that is long-wave-equivalent to a stack of thin generally anisotropic layers. These expressions reduce to the results of Backus (1962) for the case of isotropic and transversely isotropic layers.