Philip W. Holbrook

This synthesis of physical laws is a milestone in Physics, Mechanics, Geology, and Cosmology.

My career in the oil industry involved exploration operations but mostly involved mathematically oriented earth science research and development.

I joined Sperry-Sun Drilling Services in 1984 and began work on what is still the only mechanically representative pore pressure and fracture pressure prediction methodology in 1985. A resultant computer program and methodology has been developed and successfully applied to over 300 wells worldwide.

Deterministic Earth Mechanical Science bridges the gap between Newtonian macro-mechanics and quantum mechanics; both of which are physically-mathematically deterministic. Minerals and fluid molecules compose almost all of the earth.

Minerals and fluid molecules interact mechanically through gravitational attraction with the earth's core and attraction-repulsion of adjacent electron clouds.

Earth mechanics is a constitutive mechanical theory wherein [mass-energy] and [stress/strain] are algebraically equated.

The theory answers many earth mechanical questions including "How are stresses transmitted from the mantle to freshly deposited sediments through the earth's sedimentary crust?" The answers are all closed-form minimum energy mathematical expressions.

These relationships are algebraically linked conservation laws and existing laws of physics. The theory is consistent with pre-existing qualitative geologic classifications. The theory goes further to explain the geologic classifications quantitatively and deterministically.

Earth Mechanical Systems field theory is a new branch of mechanics wherein all the molecules that compose the earth are in force-at-a-distance communication through a continuous mechanical field. A constitutive cross-field-term joins the elastic and plastic mechanical limits of the earth's sediments and sedimentary crust.

The theory is a mathematical extension of Newtonian mechanics. The domain limit is the earth's surface. Elastic and Plastic [stress/strain] relationships are limits of Earth Mechanics, soil mechanics and civil engineering.

The synthesis is entirely mechanical. The scale of this {elastic-plastic [stress/strain]} synthesis is on par with Maxwell's synthesis of electricity and magnetism.

I attended Cortland State in New York as an undergraduate. I got an MS in Geology from Franklin & Marshall College. I received my Ph.D. in Geology from Penn State in 1973.