The basis for writing this book was the book of the same title published in 1989 by the first author. Since then, however, significant progress has been made in many branches of Seismology and new knowledge of theoretical and practical importance has been produced and published in recent editions (books, journals, conference proceedings, internet, etc.).

In addition, during this fifteen-year period, the content of that book and additional material have been taught to students, gaining significant additional relevant experience. Thus, the content of this book is a collective effort by the three authors to reproduce the foundational seismological knowledge that is currently applicable and to utilize related teaching experience.

The extent to which various topics are developed in each university book is influenced by the research interests of its authors. Therefore, since recent years our main research project has focused on earthquake prediction and the study of seismic hazard and seismic risk, these topics are explored in greater depth in this book (chapters 7, 12) compared to other foreign language seismology books.

Conversely, the seismological methods applied for studying the geophysical structure of the Earth, which are extensively developed in several foreign language texts, are not a primary focus of this book because they are included in the books "Physics of the Earth's Interior" and "Applied Geophysics" by the first author.

Thus, the subjects of this book include: the theory of elasticity and elastic waves (chapter 2), which form the basis for understanding how seismic waves propagate; the instruments for recording earthquakes (chapter 3); the propagation of seismic waves within the Earth (chapter 4); the methods of measuring various seismological quantities (chapter 5); the origin of earthquakes and their spatiotemporal distribution (chapter 6); earthquake prediction (chapter 7); the macroseismic effects of earthquakes (chapter 8); induced vibrations (chapter 9); lunar seismicity (chapter 10); the parameters of the seismic fault and the mechanism of earthquake generation (chapter 11); and technical seismology (chapter 12).

The main goal of the book is for the reader to understand the physical significance of its contents and how to utilize them to solve socially relevant problems. For this reason, the text does not provide complete mathematical proofs of all theoretical relations. However, in the appendix added to this edition, the method for solving Type B Exercises is indicated, many of which relate to proofs of fundamental theoretical relations. The answers to the Type A Exercises are also provided in the appendix so that the reader can verify the results of their own solutions.

The book does not require prior seismological knowledge. However, it does assume basic knowledge of Physics and higher Mathematics. At the end of the book, a bibliography is presented, divided into "Books" and "Publications in Journals and Conference Proceedings," which relates to significant recent seismological knowledge, allowing the reader to find additional reliable information on subjects of interest. At the end of each chapter, a bibliography relevant to its text is provided.