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Fractals in Geophysics and Seismology: An Introduction

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Fractal Behaviour of the Earth System

Summary

Many aspects of nature are very much complex to understand and this has started a new science of geometrical complexity, known as ‘Fractal Geometry’. Various studies carried out across the globe reveal that many of the Earth’s processes satisfy fractal statistics, where examples range from the frequency-size statistics of earthquakes to the time series of the Earth’s magnetic field. The scaling property of fractal signal is very much appealing for descriptions of many geological features. Based on well-log measurements, Earth’s physical properties have been found to exhibit fractal behaviour. Many authors have incorporated this finding in various geophysical techniques to improve their interpretive utility. The aim of present chapter is to briefly discuss the fractal behaviour of the Earth system and the underlying mechanism by citing some examples from potential field and seismology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

    V.P. Dimri

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  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

    V. P. Dimri

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Dimri, V. (2005). Fractals in Geophysics and Seismology: An Introduction. In: Dimri, V.P. (eds) Fractal Behaviour of the Earth System. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-26536-8_1

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