Exploration seismology is a complex technology that blends advanced physics, mathematics, and computation. Seismic imaging, an essential part of exploration seismology, has evolved over roughly 100 years of effort into a sophisticated imaging system capable  of forming detailed 3D images of the interior of the Earth’s crust. We have been involved in research, teaching, and practice in this field for many decades and this book is an outgrowth of our experience. With it we hope to bring a more detailed understanding of the methods of seismic imaging to a broad audience of scientists and engineers. <...>

Crystallography, an interdisciplinary subject, plays an important role in a wide range of subjects of science and technology. Its rudimentary knowledge is essential for beginners in physics, chemistry, mathematics, molecular biology, geology, metallurgy, and particularly to materials science and mineralogy. Its relationship with physics can be understood in terms of the following examples:
1. All conservation laws in physics are essentially interrelated with symmetry operations.
2. Symmetry considerations allow us to establish Pauli’s exclusion principle.
3. Periodic potential of the lattice is responsible for the creation of allowed and forbidden energy bands. Accordingly, materials can be classified as conductor, semi-conductor and insulator depending on the amount of band gap.
4. Relationships between the magnitudes of measurable parameters give rise to the tensor components of different physical properties in crystals. This list can be elaborated further. <...>

Feasibility studies are required in the pre-production stages to justify the continued investment of money. Usually a scoping study is followed by one or more prefeasibility studies which reflect the increasing level of technical and economic knowledge gained at the various earlier stages.

This volume, Observing the volcano world: volcanic crisis communication, focuses at the point where the ‘rubber hits the road’, where the world of volcano-related sciences and all its uncertainties meet with the complex and ever-changing dynamics of our society, wherever and whenever this may be.