Epicenter Prediction: Turbal's Principle
Abstract Turbal's principle states that each earthquake causes the appearance of one or more solitary (strain) waves that move away from the hypocenter of the earthquake. Some waves then pass through the zones of accumulation of seismic energy, causing new earthquakes, which in turn can generate new solitons. In this way, it is possible to forecast/predict unstable faults in the region in a defined time period. Additional analyses show that there exist five preferential directions of strain wave propagation in the Earth's crust. Most waves travel in a north-south direction back and forth from the equator toward the poles. Other directions are at the angles of 36 degrees, 72 degrees, 108 degrees, and 144 degrees, with respect to the north-south direction. The velocity of the strain waves in the Earth's crust ranges from ~ 0 to 6000 m s− 1. The velocity of these waves is upward limited by the velocity of the seismic waves.