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The Earth is a dynamic system. Internal processes, together with external gravitational forces of the Sun, Moon and planets, displace the Earth's mass, impacting on its shape, rotation and gravitational field. Doug Smylie provides a rigorous overview of the dynamical behaviour of the solid Earth, explaining the theory and presenting methods for numerical implementation. Topics include advanced digital analysis, earthquake displacement fields, Free Core Nutations observed by the Very Long Baseline Interferometric technique, translational modes of the solid inner core observed by the superconducting gravimeters, and dynamics of the outer fluid core. Earth Dynamics is supported by freeware computer code, available online for students to implement the theory. Online materials also include a suite of graphics generated from the numerical analysis, combined with 100 graphic examples in Earth Dynamics to make this an ideal tool for researchers and graduate students in the fields of geodesy, seismology and solid earth geophysics.
1. Introduction and theoretical background
2. Time sequence and spectral analysis
3. Earth deformations
4. Earth's rotation: observations and theory
5. Earth's figure and gravitation
6. Rotating fluids and the outer core
7. The subseismic equation and boundary conditions
8. Variational methods and core modes
9. Static deformations and dislocation theory
Appendix A. Elementary results from vector analysis
Appendix B. Properties of Legendre functions
Appendix C. Numerical Earth models
References
Fortran index
Subject index
D. E. Smylie is a Professor of Geophysics at York University, Toronto. He has conducted research on earthquake displacement fields, the rotation of the Earth, and the dynamics of the deep interior while lecturing in Geophysics at the University of Toronto, the University of Western Ontario, the University of British Columbia and York University, Toronto. In 2002 he was awarded the John Tuzo Wilson Medal by the Canadian Geophysical Union for his achievements. Professor Smylie is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a member of the American Geophysical Union, and has served as Founder and President of the Canadian Geophysical Union.
"Earth Dynamics is a scholarly work. [...] people who have a strong background in differential equations and a foundational understanding of the more advanced nature of our planet's motions will enjoy what Smylie has to say. [...] Smylie's writing is easy to follow with this prior knowledge [of physics], and having the software available from the website makes it easy to verify his work. [...] Throughout the book Smylie's writing is clear and well organized. His formulae are straightforward. This book would be a sound foundation for a graduate level course on terrestrial dynamics. [...] it provides a welcome challenge to those of us who enjoy a bit more meat in our science reading. If you are a person who has a strong background in higher mathematics and physics, then you might enjoy this scholarly tome."
– Woodrow W. Grizzle III, Planetarian
