Catastrophe theory models in geology

Catastrophe theory is a recently developed branch of topology which has a number of practical applications, principally because of its ability to model situations which include discontinuities or singularities, where the methods of differential calculus break down. Some examples of its possible use in geology are presented, in fields as diverse as volcanology, sedimentology, and structural geology, and wider applications, in modeling spatial or temporal discontinuities in other fields, are suggested.