Emphasizes the interdependence of mathematical formulation and physical meaning in the description of seismic phenomena. This work uses continuum mechanics to describe the material through which seismic waves propagate, and to formulate a system of equations to study the behaviour of such a material.

This textbook - incorporated with many illuminating examples and exercises - is aimed at graduate students of physical sciences and engineering. The purpose is to provide a background of physics and underlying mathematics for the concept of rays, filling the gap between mathematics and physics textbooks for a coherent treatment of all topics. The authors' emphasis and extremely good presentation of the theory of characteristics, which defines the rays, accentuate the beauty and versatility of this theory. To this end, the rigour of the formulation - by a pure mathematician's standards - is...

This remarkable collaboration between a mathematical physicist and a philosopher of science is concerned with foundational and conceptual issues in seismology. Their aim is to present mathematical, physical, and philosophical topics in a clear way and to clarify them when this is possible. They provide an extensive philosophical discussion of the methods of science and show how seismology fits in. They explain with care and precision the basic structure of seismology, which is built on classical continuum mechanics. Not only do they explain how various models work in seismology, but they...