equipment, quality assurance, and the maintenance methods required to assure high-quality technical results. This book is unique in that it addresses these points from theoretical and practical perspectives. The authors have written a book that can be understood by technicians with modest theoreti- cal backgrounds. On the other hand, it contains enough information to be of extreme interest to technicians, physicians, and engineers with a more so- phisticated knowledge of physics. The book is well illustrated, and the graphics are excellent.

The major drawback to the textbook is that there is not too much clinical information given and much of it is already outdated. However, there are other textbooks that cover this aspect of ultrasonography. All in all, this is a very worthwhile textbook which should find a home in the libraries of hospitals with programs in ultrasound and in the libraries of radiology and cardiology divisions where ult•rasonography is used regular- ly. It should become a reference textbook for all technical programs in ultrasound. Finally, engineers, bioengineers, environmental engineers, and those assessing biohazards will find portions of this text to be an invaluable source of background material.

MARVIN DUNN

The University of Kansas Medical Center Kansas City, Kansas 66103

Simple Seismics

N. A. Anstey International Human Resources Deoelopment Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts, 1982. v -/- 168pp. Price $27.50 cloth, $18.00paperback.

This delightful little book actually achieves the oft-promised goal of de- scribing a specialized field in a manner easily understood by persons not working directly in this field. Written for "the petroleum geologist, the reservoir engineer, the well-log analyst, the processing technician, and the man in the field," Simple $eismics gives a technically sound description of modern seismic prospecting practice, with a minimum ofjargon and almost

no mathematical equations. The author provides familiar analogies and simple sketches to portray the basic principles and aims of seismic prospect- ing and even to clarify such concepts as migration, wavelet processing, and synthetic seismograms.

The purpose of the book is to show how seismic methods can be applied to the exploitation of discovered oil reservoirs, in addition to the traditional role of oil exploration. The author's generally optimistic view of present capabilities and future improvements is nicely balanced by references to limitations and potential misinterpretations. The book is filled with seismic sections and other data illustrating the points under discussion.

After a chapter on the basic ideas of the seismic reflection method and their application tO determination of geologic structure, a chapter is devot- ed to determining stratigraphy from seismic data. For this purpose, ampli- tude comparisons and degree of reflection continuity are interpreted in terms of depositional environment, erosion, sea-level changes, presence of salt masses, etc. The third chapter explains how the seismic trace from a layered earth can be made to portray the layering more accurately by wave- let processing. Synthetic seismograms derived from acoustic logs and pseu- do-logs derived from seismic traces are defined and discussed. A chapter entitled "e.g.," consists of 32 examples of seismic cross sections, guaranteed to test the mettle of any seismic interpreter whose expertise derives from the recent perusal of the previous four chapters. Chapter 6 defines and discusses velocity surveys and vertical seismic profiling, in a number of variations. Chapter 7 presents striking examples of stratigraphic detail made possible by 3-D seismics, that is, by recording a dense areal coverage of reflection points above a reservoir. Other efforts to improve seismic delineation in- elude the use of a wider frequency range and the measurement of such additional rock properties as attenuation and shear speed. The last chapter concerns the cost effectiveness of the seismic techniques, as compared with development drilling.

The message of this book is timely and the presentation is convincing. This reviewer endorses the author's final sentence: "We should be using geophysics for the location of delineation and development wells far more than we presently do."

J. E. WHITE

Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado 80401

380 J. Acaust. Sac. Am. 74(1), July 1983; 0001-4966/83/070380-01500.80; ¸ 1983 Acaust. Sac. Am.; Book Reviews 380

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