The indirect boundary element method(IBEM)is used to study three-dimensional scattering of obliquely incident plane SH waves by an alluvial valley embedded in a layered half-space.The free-field response of the layered half-space is calculated by the direct stiffness method,and dynamic Green’s functions of moving distributed loads acting on inclined lines in a layered half-space are calculated to simulate the scattering wave field.The presented method yields very accurate results since the three-dimensional dynamic stiffness matrix is exact and the moving distributed loads can act directly on the valley boundary without singularity.Numerical results and analyses are performed for amplification of obliquely incident plane SH waves around an alluvial valley in a uniform half-space and in single layer over half-space.The results show that the three-dimensional responses are distinctly different from the two-dimensional responses,and the displacement amplitudes around alluvial valleys in a uniform half-space are obviously different from those in a layered half-space. The indirect boundary element method (IBEM) is used to study three-dimensional scattering of obliquely incident plane SH waves by an alluvial valley embedded in a layered half-space. The free-field response of the layered half-space is calculated by the direct stiffness method, and dynamic Green’s functions of moving distributed loads acting on inclined lines in a layered half-space are calculated to simulate the scattering wave field. The presented method yields very accurate results since the three-dimensional dynamic stiffness matrix is ​​exact and the moving distributed loads can act directly on the valley boundary without singularity. Numerical results and analyzes are performed for amplification of obliquely incident plane SH waves around an alluvial valley in a uniform half-space and in single layer over half-space. The results show that the three-dimensional responses are distinctly different from the two-dimensional responses, and the displacement amplitudes around alluvial valleys in a uniform half-space are obviously different from those in a layered half-space.