Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America; December 1993; v. 83; no. 6;
p. 1871-1880
© 1993 Seismological Society of America
Display and assessment of earthquake focal mechanisms by vector representation
STUART A. SIPKIN
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, MS 967, BOX 25046, DFC, DENVER, COLORADO 80225
Abstract
The isomorphism between symmetric, three-dimensional, second-order tensors and six-dimensional vectors is exploited to display suites of seismic moment tensors and to asses their similarities and differences, both graphically and quantitatively. Using the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge as an example, I show that this method successfully differentiates between different mechanism types and orientations. In addition, the dispersion within a group of mechanisms is successfully quantified.
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