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Focal Mechanism Stereonet (2D)

Interactive 2D equal-area (Schmidt net) beachball diagram: set strike, dip and rake on a double-couple earthquake source and watch the lower-hemisphere P-wave radiation pattern, nodal planes and P/T axes render as a stereographic projection, the same 2D construction seismologists actually plot by hand.

Geology & Earth Science2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

Every earthquake's slip on a fault plane reduces to three angles — strike, dip and rake — that fix the double-couple source. This 2D twin renders the exact same P-wave radiation pattern as a Lambert equal-area lower-hemisphere projection: a per-pixel scalar field computed on a flat disk, the actual hand-plotted stereonet construction seismologists have used for a century, rather than a rendered 3D sphere. Drag the sliders to watch the compressional/dilatational quadrants, nodal-plane arcs and P/T axis markers redraw live, and sweep the probe azimuth to read first-motion polarity at any station.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 2D equal-area (Schmidt net) beachball diagram: set strike, dip and rake on a double-couple earthquake source and watch the lower-hemisphere P-wave radiation pattern render as a stereographic projection computed per-pixel on a flat disk, the same construction seismologists have hand-plotted for a century.

seismologyearthquakefocal mechanismbeachball diagrammoment tensorgeophysicsstereonetequal-area projection

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install