There is a long tradition of teaching earth structure and plate tectonics in early years of undergraduate degrees in geological sciences and the concepts underpin many general modules on the earth taught to broad groups of science students. Consequently there are many text books that cover much of the ground visited by this web-site. The list below is not exhaustive. Nor is any one book entirely suited to the whole content here. Deliberate omissions are those texts that have sought to minimise the amount of quantitative science. Many of these basic introductory texts also give the impression that much of their content is established fact - blurring the distinction between scientific models and the data used to test them.

So the list below has some fairly high-powered books, aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate readers, together with a few of the more quantitative texts that are written from a relatively elementary starting point. None cover all aspects of this web-site. Some rapidly-developing areas of research such as the use of seismic tomography to reveal mantle structure and the mapping of active tectonics using GPS have yet to impact heavily on undergraduate texts, although they are changing greatly the way we view global tectonics.

So here's the list (alphabetical, not preference!). By placing the cursor over the reference some personal comments on the books appear alongside.