[Roger Hunter]

(11-16-2015, 02:48 AM)Skywise Wrote: Hi Roger. Answering your question from elsewhere.

Given a random distribution I would expect a bell curve centered on 90 degrees. However, earthquake locations are not distributed randomly. They cluster along plate boundaries.

Since most large quakes occur around the Pacific, and looking at a globe you could probably fit a circular ring around the ocean that would cover most of the Ring of Fire, I have a hunch that 127 degrees is close to a distance that would include a larger number of these quakes thus moving the hump from 90.

Brian

AHA!

You're right. I had expected a random distribution, not taking the effects of distance into account. 3-D visualization is not one of my strong points.

On a globe, 90 degrees is the largest radius possible so if quakes were uniformly distributed there would be a bell curve centered on 90 degrees.

Since quakes are not uniformly distributed, different peak locations are to be expected and it appears that 127, 128 and 161 are 3 of the best by a large margin.

The lack of anything closer than 39 degrees would indicate an error. I'll look into that.

Demonstrating it will be difficult. Circles on a map will quickly obscure everything.

Any suggestions?

Roger