Book excerpt: This volume serves as an introduction to modern magnetotellurics originating with the pioneering work of Tikhonov and Cagniard. It presents a comprehensive summary of theoretical and methodological aspects of magnetotellurics. It provides a bridge between textbooks on electrical prospecting and numerous papers on magnetotelluric methods scattered among various geophysical journals and collections. The book has been written in the terms of the theory of ill-posed problems and contains a special chapter encouraging readers to master the elements of this theory that defines the philosophy of the physical experiment. The book thus offers the connected and consistent account of the principles of magnetotellurics from that single viewpoint. The book also brings together developments from many sources and involves some little-known results developed in Russia in Tikhonov's magnetotellurics school. Of particular interest are concluding chapters of the book that demonstrate the potential of magnetotellurics in oil and gas surveys, including discovery of the Urengoy gas field in Western Siberia, one of the largest gas fields in the world. This potential also is revealed in studies of the earth's crust and upper mantle.