A method for the finite element computation of the synthetic seismograms of SH wave propagation in a two-dimensional(2-D)medium is proposed. The finite element method has the advantage of specifying the arbitrary density and velocity field in the medium.To complete the waveformmodeling for an earthquake,the transformation of line source snapshotsand seismograms of the 2-D finite element modeling to the point sourceresponses is critically necessary.The accuracy of the finite element modeling is verified by comparing it with the generalized ray method and with afinite difference method which computes the 2-D wave field from a different approach.The aim of this study is to demonstrate the successfulness ofseismogram synthesis by the finite element method and to propose thepotential applications of this method in the Taiwan area.