An innovative new approach to studying earthquake source mechanisms, combining theory and observation, for graduate students, researchers and seismology professionals.

Kostrov and Das present a general theoretical model summarizing our current knowledge of fracture mechanics as applied to earthquakes and earthquake source processes. Part I explains continuum and fracture mechanics, providing the reader with some background and context. Part II continues with a discussion of the inverse problem of earthquake source theory and a description of the seismic moment tensor. Part III presents specific earthquake source models. Although data processing and acquisition techniques are discussed only in simplified form for illustrative purposes, the material in this book will aid in better orienting and developing these techniques. The aim of this book is to explore the phenomena underlying earthquake fracture and present a general theoretical model for earthquake source processes.

nesus, Armenia, and Georgia have largely profited from the experience acquired in the study of the large events of the early 1980s. The Mediterranean region is not only the site of shallow dispersed seismic activity, it is also the site of localized intermediate depth seismic activity, and of some rare deeper events. Active subduc tion is clearly at the origin of Greek intermediate depth seismicity, while the deep activity under Calabria and the Vrancea region in Romania is clearly related to downgoing slabs that have long remained active after the arrest of subduction. The origin of the intermediate and very deep seismicity below Spain is a considerably more complex problem. Several possible explanations of the intermediate depth activity to about 110 km have been proposed, but the origin of the deep (650 km) events studied by BURFORN et a1. remains a mystery since this is the only source of deep activity that is not related in an obvious way to a subduction zone. The problem of seismic source mechanism and seismotectonics cannot be completely separated from that of the mechanical origin of earthquakes. Recent work on this subject has revealed the intimate relation between fault geometry, as observed by field geologists, and the results of inversion of source process from seismic data in the far-field or in the near-field.

Consisting of more than 150 articles written by leading experts, this authoritative reference encompasses the entire field of solid-earth geophysics. It describes in detail the state of current knowledge, including advanced instrumentation and techniques, and focuses on important areas of exploration geophysics. It also offers clear and complete coverage of seismology, geodesy, gravimetry, magnetotellurics and related areas in the adjacent disciplines of physics, geology, oceanography and space science.

After every major earthquake, the Earth rings like a bell for several days. These free oscillations of the Earth and the related propagating body and surface waves are routinely detected at broad-band seismographic stations around the world. In this book, F. A. Dahlen and Jeroen Tromp present an advanced theoretical treatment of global seismology, describing the normal-mode, body-wave, and surface-wave methods employed in the determination of the Earth's three-dimensional internal structure and the source mechanisms of earthquakes. The authors provide a survey of both the history of global seismological research and the major theoretical and observational advances made in the past decade. The book is divided into three parts. In the first, "Foundations," Dahlen and Tromp give an extensive introduction to continuum mechanics and discuss the representation of seismic sources and the free oscillations of a completely general Earth model. The resulting theory should provide the basis for future scientific discussions of the elastic-gravitational deformation of the Earth. The second part, "The Spherical Earth," is devoted to the free oscillations of a spherically symmetric Earth. In the third part, "The Aspherical Earth," the authors discuss methods of dealing with the Earth's three-dimensional heterogeneity. The book is concerned primarily with the forward problem of global seismology--detailing how synthetic seismograms and spectra may be calculated and interpreted. As a long-needed unification of theories in global seismology, the book will be important to graduate students and to professional seismologists, geodynamicists, and geomagnetists, as well as to astronomers who study the free oscillations of the Sun and other stars.