Page 15 - Physical Principles of Sedimentary Basin Analysis

Preface

God is in the details.
The devil is in the details.
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (among others)

This book is based on lecture notes about the physical processes that govern sedimentary
basins. The notes were the basis for a one-semester seminar named “Heat and fluid flow
in sedimentary basins” offered by UNIK, an affiliate of the University of Oslo at Kjeller.
As the title suggests, this book is about the physical principles of processes in sedimen-
tary basins, for instance, heat and fluid flow. The subject is approached by deriving the
basic equations from fundamental principles such as mass and energy conservation. The
equations are then solved for simple problems that give insight into the processes.
It should be possible to reproduce most of the solutions, calculations and plots presented
in the book with a modest effort and basic computer facilities. Reproduction of the results
is the only way to ensure that the results are correct.
The book is written primarily for students who want to study heat and fluid flow in sed-
imentary basins from a physical point of view, and need to do their own modeling. The
book requires some background in mathematics, and knowledge of continuum mechanics
is an advantage. The reader should be familiar with calculus and linear algebra. It would
be advantageous to be familiar with partial differential equations like the heat equation,
Fourier series and complex numbers. As long as the reader is familiar with differentiation
and integration, and has a sufficient interest in mathematics, she or he should be able to fol-
low the derivations. Several linear (partial) differential equations are solved, but all details
are provided. The aim has been to make the book as self-contained as possible by deriving
all results that are presented. Details are necessary in this respect, in order to make the text
complete and self-contained.
The book is meant as an introduction to and a primer for modeling, and it therefore cov-
ers the basic (state-of-the-art) models. It is not meant to cover the latest developments in the
various fields. It does not attempt to cover the historical development of the various sub-
jects either. This is reflected by the reference list, which easily could have been expanded
10 or 100 times. Each chapter has a last section with a few references that may serve as
a starting point for further reading. A problem with writing such a book is to decide what

xiii