Introduction to Seismology




PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Why another book on seismology? Several excellent texts already exist that cover

most parts of the field. None, however, is ideal for the purposes of an introductory

class. Most simply present far more material than can be adequately covered in a

single quarter or semester. My goal for this book is to produce a readable, concise

introduction to the quantitative aspects of seismology that is designed specifically

for classroom instruction. The result is not as rigorous or comprehensive as Aki

and Richards (1980) or Lay and Wallace (1995), but I hope that it is more suited

for teaching an overview of seismology within a limited time period.



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

During the last ten years, I have continued teaching the beginning seismology

class at University of California, San Diego, and have received feedback from my

students, as well as other instructors who have been using the book. The second

edition is my attempt to expand on some subjects, clarify parts of the book that have

proven confusing, and update the discussion of current research results. The biggest

changes are to the Source Theory chapter, which now provides a more complete

discussion of non-double-couple sources, stress drop, earthquake scaling, radiated

energy, energy partitioning, and magnitude saturation. However, I have also tried

to remain concise enough that the book can still be used for a one-quarter or onesemester

class, although depending upon the pace of the class it may be necessary

to skip some of the material. Sections flagged with a † are suggestions for possible

areas to skip without much compromise in understanding of the remaining subjects.

The computer subroutines and data for some of the exercises can now be obtained

from , which also contains links to any errors found in

the text and other supplemental information that I plan to add in the future.


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