Geophysics, or physics modelling of geological phenomena, is as old and as established as geoscience itself. The statistical physics modelling of various geophysical phenomena, earthquake in particular, is comparatively recent. This book intends to cover these recent developments in modelling various geophysical phenomena, including the imposing classic phenomenon of earthquakes, employing various statistical physical ideas and techniques. This first book on statistical physics modelling of geophysical phenomena contains extensive reviews by almost all the leading experts in the field and should be widely useful to the graduate students and researchers in geoscience and statistical physics. It grew out of the lecture notes from a workshop on “Models of Earthquakes: Physics Approaches”, held in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, under the auspices of its Centre for Applied Mathematics and Computational Science in December 2005. The book is divided in four parts. In the first part, tutorial materials are