Geophysical Continua: Deformation in the Earth's Interior

Geophysical Continua presents a systematic treatment of deformation in the Earth from seismic to geologic time scales, and demonstrates the linkages between different aspects of the Earth's interior that are often treated separately. A unified treatment of solids and fluids is developed to include thermodynamics and electrodynamics, in order to cover the full range of tools needed to understand the interior of the globe. The emphasis throughout the book is on relating seismological observations with interpretations of Earth processes. Physical principles and mathematical descriptions are developed that can be applied to a broad spectrum of geodynamic problems. Incorporating illustrative examples and an introduction to modern computational techniques, this textbook is designed for graduate-level courses in geophysics and geodynamics. It is also a useful reference for practising Earth scientists.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; Part I. Continuum Mechanics in Geophysics: 2. Description of deformation; 3. The stress field concept; 4. Constitutive relations; 5. Linearised elasticity and viscoelasticity; 6. Continua under pressure; 7. Fluid flow; 8. Continuum equations and boundary conditions; Part II. Earth Deformation: 9. From the atomic scale to the continuum; 10. Geological deformation; 11. Seismology and Earth structure; 12. Lithospheric deformation; 13. The influence of rheology - asthenosphere to the deep mantle; 14. Mantle convection; 15. The core and the Earth's dynamo; Appendix. Table of notation; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author :
B. L. N. Kennett is Director and Distinguished Professor of Seismology at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra. Professor Kennett's research interests are directed towards understanding the structure of the Earth through seismological observations. He is the recipient of the 2006 Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London, and the 2007 Gutenberg Medal of the European Geosciences Union, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. Professor Kennett is the author of three other books for Cambridge University Press: Seismic Wave Propagation in Stratified Media (1983), The Seismic Wavefield: Introduction and Theoretical Development (2001), and The Seismic Wavefield: Interpretation of Seismograms on Regional and Global Scales (2002). H.-P. Bunge is Professor and Chair of Geophysics at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Universität Munchen, and is Head of the Munich Geo-Center. Prior to his Munich appointment he spent five years on the faculty at Princeton University, New Jersey. Professor Bunge's research interests lie in the application of high performance computing to problems of Earth and planetary evolution, including core, mantle and lithospheric dynamics. A member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Bunge is also President of the Geodynamics Division of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).