"Principles of Seismology" by Augustin Udias

Abstract

Principles of Seismology by Augustin Udias is the fourth major global seismology text published in the last five years (the others being Modern Global Seismology by Lay and Wallace, 1995; Theoretical Global Seismology by Dahlen and Tromp, 1998; and Introduction to Seismology by Shearer, 1999)—an unprecedented spate of books in a field dominated for nearly two decades by Aki and Richard's Quantitative Seismology, 1980, the second edition of which is due out shortly. Udias' entry into this market targets upper-division undergraduate and introductory graduate courses and is intended to be “student friendly”, something Quantitative Seismology certainly was not. Developed over the course of twenty-five years of teaching seismology at the universities of Madrid and Barcelona, Principles of Seismology focuses on theory, not observation. It develops important results in full, …