Structural geologists are well aware of the fact that isotropic rocks are quite exceptional in nature. Whicheverorigin, sedimentary, metamorphicormagmatic, rocks are shaped with a plane of mineral flattening, the foliation in geologists' jargon, and with a line ofmineral elongation, the lineation. Just like a good quarryman, a trained structural geologistwill detectapreferredorientationin an apparently isotropic granite. Preferred mineral orientation and thus structural anisotropy are the rule in nature. Consideringthe largevariationsinelasticcoefficientsofrock-forming minerals, itcould be...

Plate tectonics has significantly broadened our view of the dynamics of continental evolution, involving both the processes currently active at the surface and those extending deep into the interior of the Earth. Seismic anisotropy provides some of the most diagnostic evidence for mapping past and present deformation of the entire crustmantle system. This volume contains papers presented originally at an international workshop at the Chateau of Trest in the Czech Republic in 1996. This workshop brought together geophysicists and geologists who work in the field of observational and...