Mathematical Geophysics

The contributions to this book follow a topical trend. In several geophysical fields evidence is accumulating concerning the deviation of the earth's structure from radial symmetry. Seismology provides the most adequate resolution for revealing the earth's lateral inhomogeneity on a global to local scale. Lateral structure in the density distribution is also manifest in the earth's gravity field and in the geoid. Asphericity in physical parameters, generally supposed only to vary with the vertical coordinate, has a profound influence on geodynamics. The effects of these deviations from spherical symmetry concern in particular convection theory, post-glacial rebound and the dynamics of the lithosphere and upper mantle in general. At the 16th International Conference on Mathematical Geophysics which was held in Oosterbeek, the Netherlands, in 1986, the need was felt to present the state of the art. Several prospective authors were found interested to contribute to the present book. This Oosterbeek conference was one in a long series of topical conferences starting with the Upper Mantle Project Symposia on Geophysical Theory and Computers in the 1960s, and thence their successors, the conferences on Mathematical Geophysics, until the present.

I. Seismology and Three Dimensional Structure of the Earth.- Waves in a 3-D Earth.- 1 Low frequency seismology and three-dimensional structure observational aspects..- 2 Free-oscillation coupling theory..- 3 Surface waves in weakly heterogeneous media..- 4 On the connection between ray theory and scattering theory for surface waves..- 5 A hybrid solution for wave propagation problems in inhomogeneous media..- Large-scale inversion.- 6 Elastic wavefield inversion and the adjoint operator for the elastic wave equation..- 7 Subspace methods for large-scale nonlinear inversion..- 8 Imaging algorithms, accuracy and resolution in delay time tomography..- II. Convection and Lithospheric Processes.- Geomagnetism.- 9 The determination of fluid flow at the core surface from geomagnetic observations..- Mantle convection.- 10 Long wavelength features of mantle convection..- 11 Mean-field methods in mantle convection..- 12 Infinite Prandtl number spherical-shell convection..- 13 Lateral heterogeneity and the geoid: the importance of the urface kinematic constraints..- Postglacial rebound.- 14 Lithospheric thickness, Antarctic deglaciation history, and ocean basin discretization effects in a global model of postglacial sea level change..- 15 Non-uniqueness of lithospheric thickness estimates based on glacial rebound data along the east coast of North America..- Thermomechanical processes in the lithosphere.- 16 On the mechanics of plate boundary formation..- 17 Supercontinent breakup: effect on eustatic sea level and the oceanic heat flux..