Seismic Wave Propagation and Scattering in the Heterogeneous Earth

Seismic waves -- generated both by natural earthquakes and by man-made sources -- have produced an enormous amount of information about the Earth's interior. In classical seismology, the Earth is modeled as a sequence of uniform horizontal layers (or sperical shells) having different elastic properties and one determines these properties from travel times and dispersion of seismic waves. The Earth, however, is not made of horizontally uniform layers, and classic seismic methods can take large-scale inhomogeneities into account. Smaller-scale irregularities, on the other hand, require other methods. Observations of continuous wave trains that follow classic direct S waves, known as coda waves, have shown that there are heterogeneities of random size scattered randomly throughout the layers of the classic seismic model. This book focuses on recent developments in the area of seismic wave propagation and scattering through the randomly heterogeneous structure of the Earth, with emphasis on the lithosphere. The presentation combines information from many sources to present a coherent introduction to the theory of scattering in acoustic and elastic materials and includes analyses of observations using the theoretical methods developed. Written for advanced undergraduates or beginning graduate students of geophysics or planetary sciences, this book should also be of interest to civil engineers, seismologists, acoustical engineers, and others interested in wave propagation through inhomogeneoud elastic media.

From the reviews: “The book published in 2009 is the second, corrected printing of the original one. Its contents are organized in a lively way so that it is easier to read and follow the discussion, with theoretical models and real examples adequately ‘scattered’ in the whole book. ... this second printing will draw renewed and broadened attention from graduate students and researchers, not only in the field of geophysics but also in civil and acoustical engineering.” (Koji Uenishi, Pure and Applied Geophysics, Vol. 167, 2010)