This is the first textbook on the Stress Field of the Earth`s Crust. It provides a brick by brick development of stress concept - Maths, Physics, Mechanics and Solid Earth.

Stress Field of the Earth's Crust is based on lecture notes prepared for a course offered to graduate students in the Earth sciences and engineering at University of Potsdam. In my opinion, it will undoubtedly also become a standard reference book on the desk of most scientists working with rocks, such as geophysicists, structural geologists, rock mechanics experts, as well as geotechnical and petroleum en- neers. That is because this book is concerned with what is probably the most pe- liar characteristic of rock its initial stress condition. Rock is always under a natural state of stress, primarily a result of the gravitational and tectonic forces to which it is subjected. Crustal stresses can vary regionally and locally and can reach in places considerable magnitudes, leading to natural or man-made mechanical failure. P- existing stress distinguishes rock from most other materials and is at the core of the discipline of Rock Mechanics, which has been developed over the last century. Knowledge of rock stress is fundamental to understanding faulting mechanisms and earthquake triggering, to designing stable underground caverns and prod- tive oil fields, and to improving mining methods and geothermal energy extraction, among others. Several books have been written on the subject, but none has atte- ted to be as all-encompassing as the one by Zang and Stephansson.

There is no text book on the Stress Field of the Earth`s Crust Brick by brick development of stress concept - Maths, Physics, Mechanics and Solid Earth Impact of stress from recent case studies and experiments A number of summary boxes and exercises facilitates the reading and understanding Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext
Ove Stephansson is professor the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany.

Klappentext

This book about rock stress is suitable for students in geosciences and rock engineering, who need to broaden their horizons about the Stress Field of the Earth's Crust. The book covers the topic so that geosciences students will be able to grasp the Cauchy Stress Principle without fear of matrix transformations in an exercise. Students interested in mathematics, physics and engineering will learn how strain gauges are used to obtain in-situ stress by the overcoring method. Leading edge technology in determining rock stress like quadruple packer and the Kaiser effect are presented together with classical methods like hydraulic fracturing. Borehole techniques (breakouts) and core-based methods (anelastic strain recovery) are illustrated. With respect to stress data, we choose to present the scientific ultra-deep drilling project KTB (Germany), the excavation for nuclear waste disposal at Olkiluoto (Finland) and the drilling into a seismic active fault zone at SAFOD (USA). Stress compilations viewed by the World Stress Map project are presented and interpreted in terms of plate tectonics.

Inhalt
Definition and Terminology.- Stress Definition.- Rock Fracture Criteria.- Rock Stress Terminology.- Crustal Stress Models.- Measuring Stress.- Physics of Stress Measurements.- Measuring Crustal Stress: Borehole Methods.- Measuring Crustal Stress: Core-Based Methods.- Interpreting Stress Data.- Local Stress Data.- Generic Stress Data.- Global Stress.