This book has been written for those who need a solid understanding of the seismic exploration method without difficult mathematics. It is presented in a format that allows one to naturally progress from the underlying physical principles to the actual seismic method. The mathematics needed for the subject is kept as simple as possible; students only need high school physics and mathematics to thoroughly grasp the principles covered. Dr. Stark has developed this text and honed its content with feedback from hundreds of students over nearly two decades of teaching seismic exploration geophysics. This textbook will teach students the principles for the detection of geologic structures, earthquake zones and hazards, resource exploration, and geotechnical engineering.

This dissertation will discuss the uncertainty encountered in the daily operations of businesses. The concepts will be developed by first giving an overview of probability and statistics as used in our everyday activities, such as the basic principles of probability, univariate and multivariate statistics, data clustering and mapping, as well as time sequence and spectral analysis. The examples used will be from the oil and gas exploration industry because the risks taken in this industry are normally quite large and are ideal for showing the application of the various techniques for minimizing risk. Subsequently, the discussion will deal with basic risk analysis, spatial and time variations of risk, geotechnical risk analysis, risk aversion and how it is affected by personal biases, and how to use portfolios to hedge risk together with the application of real options. Next, fractal analysis and its application to economics and risk analysis will be examined, followed by some examples showing the change in the Value at Risk under Fractal Brownian Motions. Finally, a neural network application is shown whereby some of these risks and risk factors will be combined to forecast the best possible outcome given a certain knowledge base. The chapters will discuss: Basic probability techniques and uncertainty principles Analysis and diversification for exploration projects The value and risk of information in the decision process Simulation techniques and modeling of uncertainty Project valuation and project risk return Modeling risk propensity or preference analysis of exploration projects Application of fractals to risk analysis Simultaneous prediction of strategic risk and decision attributes using multivariate statistics and neural networks