PHYSICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EARTHQUAKE QUANTA

Abstract

The physical significance of "earthquake quanta" is discussed in the perspective of a proposed concept "seismon." It is pointed out that the physical significance of earthquake quanta may be understood in the way similar to that of phonon in solid-state physics. Using the statistical properties of the seismons, the property such that for large earthquakes the mean stress drop is approximately constant, while for small events the mean stress drop increases with the seismic moment, may be obtained, without detailed considerations of the failure criteria and the in-teraction between different earthquake quanta.