Hi. I was wondering if any of you are studying/doing research in seismology. What kinds of math are important in that field?

 

Outside of calculus, I'd imagine partial differential equations, stats, and linear algebra, maybe some topics in real analysis.

 

But undergrad math just gave me a brief overview of different branches of math. I'm wondering if there are specific topics/areas that seismologists find useful. Thanks.

Waves, so I imagine Fourier analysis and like you said differential equations and linear algebra. Physics related I imagine you would need to know about solid mechanics, elastic media, some fluid dynamics, a little about granular systems etc. But I don't really know.

 

Why don't find a seismologist working at local university and email them your question?

Here's part of an intro to a book on seismology that mentions:

 

"Necessary mathematical tools including vector and tensor analysis, matrix algebra, Fourier analysis, statistics of errors, signal processing, and data inversion are introduced with many relevant examples".

 

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0865420785.html

Edited September 5, 201114 yr by StringJunky

Google computational seismology and check out Orfeus.

Ah thanks for all the advice. I'll look into these things and ask professors around here.