MATHEMATICAL ASPECTS OF SEISMOLOGY

Abstract

Every day there are about fifty earthquakes worldwide that are strong enough to be felt locally, and every few days an earthquake occurs that is capable of damaging structures. Each event radiates seismic waves that travel throughout Earth, and several earthquakes per day produce distant ground motions that, although too weak to be felt, are readily detected with modern instruments anywhere on the globe. Seismology is the science that studies these waves and what they tell us about the structure of Earth. Seismology occupies an interesting position within the more general fields of geophysics and Earth sciences. It presents fascinating theoretical problems involving analysis of elastic wave propagation in complex media, but it can also be applied simply as a tool to examine different areas of interest. Applications range from studies of Earth's core, thousands of kilometers below the surface, to detailed mapping of shallow crustal structure to help locate petroleum deposits