Rock physics encompasses practically all aspects of solid and fluid state physics. This book provides a unified presentation of the underlying physical principles of rock physics, covering elements of mineral physics, petrology and rock mechanics. After a short introduction on rocks and minerals, the subsequent chapters cover rock density, porosity, stress and strain relationships, permeability, poroelasticity, acoustics, conductivity, polarizability, magnetism, thermal properties and natural radioactivity. Each chapter includes problem sets and focus boxes with in-depth explanations of the physical and mathematical aspects of underlying processes. The book is also supplemented by online MATLAB exercises to help students apply their knowledge to numerically solve rock physics problems. Covering laboratory and field-based measurement methods, as well as theoretical models, this textbook is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in rock physics. It will also make a useful reference for researchers and professional scientists working in geoscience and petroleum engineering.

'This new addition to the rock physics literature can serve as an excellent textbook and is definitely worth considering for courses on related subject matter, given that advanced students will probably gain most from its use. Recommended.' M. S. Field, CHOICE

Nikolai Bagdassarov is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Goethe University, Germany. He is a fellow of the Humboldt Foundation, Head of the Rock Physics Laboratory and Professor of Geophysics at Frankfurt University, and has been a member of the American Geophysical Union since 1991. He has more than sixty peer-reviewed publications in the field of rock physics and is an experienced lecturer, having taught courses on geophysics and rock physics, physics of magmas and volcanoes, and rock mechanics at Goethe University Frankfurt since 1995.