Editorial Review:
An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes and Earth Structures is an introduction to seismology and its role in the earth sciences, and is written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students.
The fundamentals of seismic wave propagation are developed using a physical approach and then applied to show how refraction, reflection, and teleseismic techniques are used to study the structure and thus the composition and evolution of the earth. The book shows how seismic waves are used to study earthquakes and are integrated with other data to investigate the plate tectonic processes that cause earthquakes. Figures, examples, problems, and computer exercises teach students about seismology in a creative and intuitive manner. Necessary mathematical tools including vector and tensor analysis, matrix algebra, Fourier analysis, statistics of errors, signal processing, and data inversion are introduced with many relevant examples. The text also addresses the fundamentals of seismometry and applications of seismology to societal issues. Special attention is paid to help students visualize connections between different topics and view seismology as an integrated science.
An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure gives an excellent overview for students of geophysics and tectonics, and provides a strong foundation for further studies in seismology.
- Multidisciplinary examples throughout the text - catering to students in varied disciplines (geology, mineralogy, petrology, physics, etc.).
- Most up to date book on the market - includes recent seismic events such as the 1999 Earthquakes in Turkey, Greece, and Taiwan).
- Chapter outlines - each chapter begins with an outline and a list of learning objectives to help students focus and study.
- Essential math review - an entire section reviews the essential math needed to understand seismology. This can be covered in class or left to students to review as needed.
- End of chapter problem sets - homework problems that cover the material presented in the chapter. Solutions to all odd numbered problem sets are listed in the back so that students can track their progress.
- Extensive References - classic references and more current references are listed at the end of each chapter.
A set of instructor's resources containing downloadable versions of all the figures in the book, errata and answers to homework problems is available at: http://levee.wustl.edu/seismology/book/. Also available on this website are PowerPoint lecture slides corresponding to the first 5 chapters of the book.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Great Introduction  2007-10-26
This book covers the essentials and then some. It goes beyond what can reasonably be covered in an introductory course. There is a good deal of derivations and presentations from several viewpoints. Covers seismology, interpreting seismograms, inverse theory, basic equations, earthquakes, earth structure. Loads of pictures, mathematics, and real-life discussions. Puts everything in a cohesive package. Expect a challenging read!
Good intro textbook to seismology 2007-01-24
I have used this textbook for an intro to seismology class in college and have found it to be very detailed and covered a wider range of topics compared to other seismology textbooks. This book focus a great deal on deriving equations, so if you are a math person, it'll be a great way for you to learn. Problem sets at the end of each chapter are challenging but not totally impossible; and like most textbooks, only some of the answers are on the back. There are a few mistakes I found in the diagrams, but not it's not a big deal. Overall, I do recommend this book as an intro text book geared towards the upper level undergraduates or graduate students.
Excellent text for undergrad/grad course. 2005-07-18
I used this book in a course on earthquake kinematics. Previously I had used the Aki/Richards book 'Quantitative Seismology' and found myself rethinking my major! Fortunately I slugged through it and my fascination with seismology was rekindled by this book. It explains a lot of the concepts well enough for those with only a few semesters of calc/physics under their belts to easily understand. I was even able to use this book as a more clear reference for an Inverse Theory course I took. The examples are great, the diagrams clear and concise and the tone is relaxed. This book actually explains concepts that are not explained in the Aki/Richards book. I particularly like the section on Green's functions, waveform inversion, and moment tensors. There is even a chapter on Fourier analysis! This is a book I can go back to for clear & concise explanations of otherwise abstract subjects. My copy is heavily tabbed since I use it often. My only gripe is the size of the font and the layout. There are two columns per page so it makes for some tiny print and everything seems squeezed together and slightly busy. The authors do provide a nice web-site where you can look at all the diagrams in the book as huge images....free! The link can be found on Dr. Wysession's homepage at Washington University St. Louis.
All in all a great book on a great subject!
Fun with FORTRAN 2003-10-19
This book is not an opportunity to use the earth to explain continuous media. Continuum mechanics explains much of the behavior that is observed on the earth. S&W is hardcore geophysics - not for the faint-hearted! The book does still use FORTRAN - can we please move on? But the derivation of the wave equation in the second chapter is a key for any PhD wanna-be to learn for their comps.
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