Deep earthquakes (earthquakes with origins deeper than 60 km) are of scientific importance and account for approximately one-quarter of all earthquakes. They are occasionally very large and damaging yet provide much of the data that constrain our knowledge of Earth structure and dynamics. This book opens with an explanation of what deep earthquakes are, their significance to science and how they were first discovered. Later chapters provide a description of deep earthquake distribution and clustering in both time and space; a review of observations about source properties; and a discussion of theories for the origin of deep earthquakes. The book concludes with a comprehensive literature review of terrestrial and lunar deep seismicity. Deep Earthquakes presents a comprehensive, topical, historical, and geographical summary of deep earthquakes and related phenomena. It will be of considerable interest to researchers and graduate students in the fields of earthquake seismology and deep Earth structure.
Cliff Frohlich is a research scientist and Associate Director of the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin.
1. Preface; Part I. Background and Introductory Material: 1. The big, the bad, and the curious; 2. What, where, how, and why?; 3. The history of deep earthquakes; Part II. Properties of Deep and Intermediate Earthquakes: 4. The distributions of depth and sizes; 5. Spatial and temporal clustering; Part III. The Mechanism of Deep Earthquakes: 6. The deep earthquakes source; 7. The mechanics of deep earthquakes; Part IV. Why Bother About Deep Earthquakes?: 8. Are deep earthquakes useful?; 9. Answered and unanswered questions; Part V. Geographic Summary: 10. A geographic summary of deep earthquakes; Index.
Review of the hardback: 'A feature which I enjoyed particularly is … [the] use of numerous text boxes to provide detail for points of special importance. … This book is considerably more than yet another text in earthquake seismology: it also emphasises the human element as science is being done. For example, Frohlich takes pains to narrate how the thinking of some of the leading players evolved over time.' The Leading Edge
