In the decade since publication of the Rock Physics Handbook, research and use of rock physics has thrived. We hope that the First Edition has played a useful role in this era by making the scattered and eclectic mass of rock physics knowledge more accessible to experts and non-experts, alike.
While preparing this Second Edition, our objective was still to summarize in a convenient form many of the commonly needed theoretical and empirical relations of rock physics. Our approach was to present results, with a few of the key assumptions and limitations, and almost never any derivations. Our intention was to create a quick reference and not a textbook. Hence, we chose to encapsulate a broad range of topics rather than give in-depth coverage of a few. Even so, there are many topics that we have not addressed. While we have summarized the assumptions and limitations of each result, we hope that the brevity of our discussions does not give the impression that application of any rock physics result to real rocks is free of pitfalls. We assume that the reader will be generally aware of the various topics, and, if not, we provide a few references to the more complete descriptions in books and journals.
The handbook contains 101 sections on basic mathematical tools, elasticity theory, wave propagation, effective media, elasticity and poroelasticity, granular media, and pore-fluid flow and diffusion, plus overviews of dispersion mechanisms, fluid substitution, and VP–VS relations. The book also presents empirical results derived from reservoir rocks, sediments, and granular media, as well as tables of mineral data and an atlas of reservoir rock properties. The emphasis still focuses on elastic and seismic topics, though the discussion of electrical and cross seismic-electrical relations has grown. This associated RPH website offers MATLAB codes for many of the models and results described in the Second Edition.
In this Second Edition, Part 2 has been expanded to include new discussions on elastic anisotropy including the Kelvin notation and eigenvalues for stiffnesses, effective stress behavior of rocks, and stress-induced elasticity anisotropy. Part 3 includes new material on anisotropic NMO and reflectivity, AVO relations, plus a new section on elastic impedance (including anisotropic forms), and updates on wave propagation in stratified media, and borehole waves. Part 4 includes updates of inclusion-based effective media models, thinly-layered media, and fractured rocks. Part 5 contains extensive new sections on granular media, including packing, particle size, sorting, sand-clay mixture models, and elastic effective medium models for granular materials. Part 6 expands the discussion of fluid effects on elastic properties, including fluid substitution in laminated media, and models for fluid-related velocity dispersion in heterogeneous poroelastic media. Part 7 contains new sections on empirical velocity-porosity-mineralogy relations, Vp-Vs relations, pore-pressure relations, static and dynamic moduli, and velocity-strength relations. Part 8 has new discussions on capillary effects, irreducible water saturation, permeability, and flow in fractures. Part 9 includes new relations between electrical and seismic properties. Part 10 has new tables of physical constants and properties for common gases, ice, and methane hydrate.