A uniform parametrization of moment tensors

Abstract

A moment tensor is a 3 × 3 symmetric matrix that expresses an earthquake source. We construct a parametrization of the 5-D space of all moment tensors of unit norm. The coordinates associated with the parametrization are closely related to moment tensor orientations and source types. The parametrization is uniform, in the sense that equal volumes in the coordinate domain of the parametrization correspond to equal volumes of moment tensors. Uniformly distributed points in the coordinate domain therefore give uniformly distributed moment tensors. A cartesian grid in the coordinate domain can be used to search efficiently over moment tensors. We find that uniformly distributed moment tensors have uniformly distributed orientations (eigenframes), but that their source types (eigenvalue triples) are distributed so as to favour double couples.