"Presenting a coherent synthesis of lithosphere studies, this book covers a range of geophysical methods (seismic reflection, refraction, and receiver function methods; elastic and anelastic seismic tomography; electromagnetic and magnetotelluric methods; thermal, gravity and rheological models), complemented by petrologic and laboratory data on rock properties. It also provides a critical discussion of the uncertainties, assumptions, and resolution issues that are inherent in the different methods and models of the lithosphere. Multidisciplinary in scope, global in geographical extent, and covering a wide variety of tectonics settings across 3.5 billion years of Earth history, this book presents a comprehensive overview of lithospheric structure and evolution. It is a core reference for researchers and advanced students in geophysics, geodynamics, tectonics, petrology, and geochemistry, and for petroleum and mining industry professionals"--"Modern studies of Earth science suffer from fragmentation into a large number of sub-disciplines with limited dialog between them and artificial distinctions between the results based on different approaches. This problem has been particularly acute in the area of lithospheric research where different geophysical techniques have given rise to a multitude of definitions of the lithosphere - seismic, thermal, electrical, mechanical and petrological. This book presents a coherent synthesis of our current state-of-knowledge in lithosphere studies based on a full set of geophysical methods (seismic reflection, refraction, and receiver function methods; elastic and anelastic seismic tomography; electromagnetic and magnetotelluric methods; thermal, gravity and rheological models) and complemented by petrologic and laboratory data on rock properties. It also provides a critical discussion of the uncertainties, assumptions, and resolution issues that are inherent in the different methods and models"--