The encyclopedia of solid Earth geophysics / Энциклопедия по геофизике твердой Земли

Unprecedented advances in geophysics during the 1970s and 1980s have revolutionized our concepts about the Earth. This scientific revolution is largely a consequence of the discovery of seafloor spreading and the subsequent formulation of the theory of plate tectonics. In addition, however, the exploration of the Moon and planets has had a profound impact upon geophysics, as has the development of innovative space technologies, where orbiting satellites have yielded a wealth of new and truly global geophysical data. A vital catalyst for these great advancements in knowledge has been the astonishing growth of computer technology, with the attendant development of powerful new digital techniques for collecting, processing, and analyzing massive quantities of digital data. The overall effect has been to alter foreover not only our understanding of the Earth but also the fundamental way in which we do geophysical research.
The transformation of geophysics has resulted in an explosive increase in the volume of published literature. Scientific advances have been so rapid that even experts have had difficulty keeping abreast of developments in their own fields. The discoveries that paced the scientific revolution, moreover, have underscored the interdisciplinary nature of geophysics and have blurred the distinctions betweenwhat were once neatly compartmentalized geophysical disciplines. Thus some of the most exciting new work is to be found at the interfaces between, and in the integration of results from, quite disparate branches of geophysics. One aim of The Encyclopedia ofSolid Earth Geophysics is to make the inter connections in geophysics and between geophysics and geology more apparent and understandable by drawing together articles that embrace a wide spectrum of solid earth geophysics. Our overall objectives in publishing this work are to summarize the diverse and far-reaching results of the past decades of research in solid earth geophysics, to integrate those results with classical geophysics, and to organize the whole into a comprehensive and authoritative modern encyclopedia of geophysics. Solid earth geophysics is here taken to comprise chiefly seismology, geodesy, gravimetry, geo- and paleomagnetism, magnetotellurics, tectonophysics, and a few closely related areas in physics, geology, and space sciences. Although topics include a few of the more important research areas of exploration geophysics, our focus is principally on basic research in geophysics. Additional articles in the key areas of plate tectonics may be found in The Encyclopedia of Structural Geology and Plate Tectonics (Seyfert, 1987, Van Nostrand Reinhold) published as part of this encyclopedia series. <...>