The Solid Earth An Introduction to Global Geophysics

Geophysics, the physics of the Earth, is a huge subject that includes the physics of space and the atmosphere, of the oceans and of the interior of the planet. The heart of geophysics, though, is the theory of the solid Earth. We now understand in broad terms how the Earth's surface operates, and we have some notion of the workings of the deep interior. These processes and the means by which they have been understood form the theme of this book. To the layperson, geophysics means many practical things. For Californians, it is earthquakes and volcanoes; for Texans and Albertans, it is oil exploration; for Africans, it is groundwater hydrology. The methods and practices of applied geophysics are not dealt with at length here because they are covered in many specialized textbooks. This book is about the Earth, its structure and function from surface to centre.

Our search for an understanding of the planet goes back millennia to the ancient Hebrew writer of the Book of Job and to the Egyptians, Babylonians and Chinese. The Greeks first measured the Earth, Galileo and Newton put it in its place, but the Victorians began the modern discipline of geophysics. They and their successors were concerned chiefly with understanding the structure of the Earth, and they were remarkably successful. The results are summarized in the magnificent book The Earth by Sir Harold Jeffreys, which was first published in 1924.