12.201 | Fall 2004 | Undergraduate

Essentials of Geophysics

Readings

Recommended textbooks are listed below.

Lowrie, William. Fundamentals of Geophysics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, September 1997. ISBN: 9780521467285.
(Excellent reference book.)

Fowler, C. M. R. The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics. Second Edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 685. ISBN: 9780521893077. (Excellent overview of the field, useful appendices.  Second Edition of very popular undergraduate text book.  I will discuss some of the topic in more theoretical detail.)

Stacey, F. D. Physics of the Earth. 3rd ed. Brisbane, Australia: Brookfield Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780646090917.
(Good text for potential field theory, gravity + geomagnetism, meteorites, and it has very useful appendices, good problems; we will go through most of this book.)

Sleep, Norman H., Kazuya Fujita, and K. Fujita. Principles of Geophysics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 1997, p. 586. ISBN: 9780865420762.
(Good text book for this course; we will cover most of the material presented herein; useful source of literature for further reference; no problem sets.)

Turcotte, Donald L., and Gerald Schubert. Geodynamics. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780521666244.
(A “classic” reference text for gravity, thermal state of earth, heat flow, flexure, thermal convection; derives most equations.)

Stein, Seth, and Michael Wysession. An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes and Earth Structure. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 2002. ISBN: 9780865420786.
(Very good introduction to modern seismology, big plus is the use of many examples from recent seismological research.)

Anderson, Don. Theory of the Earth. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, 1990. ISBN: 9780865421233.
(Very good reference book for chemistry and thermodynamics.)

Merrill, Ronald T., et al. The Magnetic Field of the Earth. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, September 15, 1998. ISBN: 9780124912465.
(Observational and theoretical aspects of Earth’s magnetic field.)

Course Info

As Taught In
Fall 2004
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Notes
Problem Sets