This is the completely revised and updated version of the popular and highly regarded textbook, Applied Geophysics. It describes the physical methods involved in exploration for hydrocarbons and minerals, which include gravity, magnetic, seismic, electrical, electromagnetic, radioactivity, and well-logging methods. All aspects of these methods are described, including basic theory, field equipment, techniques of data acquisition, data processing and interpretation, with the objective of locating commercial deposits of minerals, oil, and gas and determining their extent. In the fourteen years or so since the first edition of Applied Geophysics, many changes have taken place in this field, mainly as the result of new techniques, better instrumentation, and increased use of computers in the field and in the interpretation of data. The authors describe these changes in considerable detail, including improved methods of solving the inverse problem, specialized seismic methods, magnetotellurics as a practical exploration method, time-domain electromagnetic methods, increased use of gamma-ray spectrometers, and improved well-logging methods and interpretation.

This is the completely updated revision of the highly regarded book Exploration Seismology. Available now in one volume, this textbook provides a complete and systematic discussion of exploration seismology. The first part of the book looks at the history of exploration seismology and the theory - developed from the first principles of physics. All aspects of seismic acquisition are then described. The second part of the book goes on to discuss data-processing and interpretation. Applications of seismic exploration to groundwater, environmental and reservoir geophysics are also included. The book is designed to give a comprehensive up-to-date picture of the applications of seismology. Exploration Seismology's comprehensiveness makes it suitable as a text for undergraduate courses for geologists, geophysicists and engineers, as well as a guide and reference work for practising professionals.

Every little wiggle has a meaning all its own. This is our underlying faith, that details of seismic waveshapes can tell us the details of the nature of the earth. But their voices are obscured by many irrelevancies. They speak in a high-noise environment, and we have been able to decipher only a small portion. However, things are looking up: better tech niques are lessening the irrelevancies, and we are learning to read. In exploration of unknown areas, determining the nature of the rocks present is often the difficult aspect. Most of the properties of rocks that can be measured at a distance are not distinctive enough to identify the rock unambiguously. Con ventionally, seismic data are used to determine aspects of the structure. Stratigraphic pictures are inferred from the struc ture, the nature of rocks exposed for examination in the sur rounding area, and regional concepts. Three points make seismic stratigraphy feasible now: (1) we have better data quality, (2) we have begun to sys tematize analysis procedures, and (3) we believe in the geologic significance of waveshape details.