| Preface to the first edition | p. xi |
| Preface to the second edition | p. xv |
| Acknowledgements to the first edition | p. xvi |
| Acknowledgements to the second edition | p. xviii |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| References and bibliography | p. 3 |
| Tectonics on a sphere: the geometry of plate tectonics | p. 5 |
| Plate tectonics | p. 5 |
| A flat Earth | p. 11 |
| Rotation vectors and rotation poles | p. 14 |
| Present-day plate motions | p. 15 |
| Plate boundaries can change with time | p. 24 |
| Triple junctions | p. 26 |
| Absolute plate motions | p. 32 |
| Problems | p. 37 |
| References and bibliography | p. 40 |
| Past plate motions | p. 43 |
| The role of the Earth's magnetic field | p. 43 |
| Dating the oceanic plates | p. 54 |
| Reconstruction of past plate motions | p. 67 |
| Problems | p. 93 |
| References and bibliography | p. 94 |
| Seismology Measuring the interior | p. 100 |
| Waves through the Earth | p. 100 |
| Earthquake seismology | p. 111 |
| Refraction seismology | p. 140 |
| Reflection seismology | p. 157 |
| Problems | p. 178 |
| References and bibliography | p. 186 |
| Gravity | p. 193 |
| Introduction | p. 193 |
| Gravitational potential and acceleration | p. 193 |
| Gravity of the Earth | p. 196 |
| The shape of the Earth | p. 198 |
| Gravity anomalies | p. 202 |
| Observed gravity and geoid anomalies | p. 213 |
| Flexure of the lithosphere and the viscosity of the mantle | p. 218 |
| Problems | p. 228 |
| References and bibliography | p. 230 |
| Geochronology | p. 233 |
| Introduction | p. 233 |
| General theory | p. 234 |
| Rubidium-strontium | p. 244 |
| Uranium-lead | p. 247 |
| Thorium-lead | p. 249 |
| Potassium-argon | p. 251 |
| Argon-argon | p. 252 |
| Samarium-neodymium | p. 254 |
| Fission-track dating | p. 258 |
| The age of the Earth | p. 262 |
| Problems | p. 265 |
| References and bibliography | p. 267 |
| Heat | p. 269 |
| Introduction | p. 269 |
| Conductive heat flow | p. 270 |
| Calculation of simple geotherms | p. 275 |
| Worldwide heat flow: total heat loss from the Earth | p. 285 |
| Oceanic heat flow | p. 288 |
| Continental heat flow | p. 298 |
| The adiabat and melting in the mantle | p. 303 |
| Metamorphism: geotherms in the continental crust | p. 308 |
| Problems | p. 321 |
| References and bibliography | p. 323 |
| The deep interior of the Earth | p. 326 |
| The internal structure of the Earth | p. 326 |
| Convection in the mantle | p. 353 |
| The core | p. 371 |
| References and bibliography | p. 381 |
| The oceanic lithosphere: ridges, transforms, trenches and oceanic islands | p. 391 |
| Introduction | p. 391 |
| The oceanic lithosphere | p. 397 |
| The deep structure of mid-ocean ridges | p. 409 |
| The shallow structure of mid-ocean ridges | p. 417 |
| Transform faults | p. 440 |
| Subduction zones | p. 458 |
| Oceanic islands | p. 487 |
| Problems | p. 492 |
| References and bibliography | p. 493 |
| The continental lithosphere | p. 509 |
| Introduction | p. 509 |
| The growth of continents | p. 517 |
| Sedimentary basins and continental margins | p. 557 |
| Continental rift zones | p. 584 |
| The Archaean | p. 595 |
| Problems | p. 601 |
| References and bibliography | p. 602 |
| Scalars, vectors and differential operators | p. 615 |
| Theory of elasticity and elastic waves | p. 620 |
| Geometry of ray paths and inversion of earthquake body-wave time-distance curves | p. 630 |
| The least-squares method | p. 636 |
| The error function | p. 638 |
| Units and symbols | p. 640 |
| Numerical data | p. 648 |
| The IASP91 Earth model | p. 650 |
| The Preliminary Reference Earth Model, isotropic version - PREM | p. 651 |
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