Fractals and chaos in geology and geophysics

Abstract

This book introduces the fundamental concepts of fractal geometry and chaotic dynamics. These concepts are then related to a variety of geological and geophysical problems, illustrating just what chaos theory and fractals really tell us and how they can be applied to the earth sciences. Petroleum and mineral reserves, earthquakes, mantle convection and magnetic field generation are among the earth's properties that come under scrutiny. This is the first book that covers these topics at an accessible level; the concepts are introduced at the lowest possible level of mathematics and are consistently understandable, so that the reader requires only a background in basic physics and mathematics. Problems are also included for the reader to solve.