Abstract: | Assuming a relation of “b” to stress state, the possibility of globe-wide stress variation and transmission was investigated. The NOAA earthquake data file served to determine the temporal change in “b” of log N = a − bM from 1963 to 1975.Periods of six to eight years are observed in the b-values (stress pattern) for most circum-Pacific areas (South America, Tonga, Kermadec, New Hebrides, Kamchatka and Eastern Aleutians).In the Kurils, fore- and aftershock sequences of large earthquakes seem to mask any characteristic global pattern that might exist. These sequences exhibit low b-values (high stress) through the time of foreshocks and early stages of aftershocks, followed by rapid increase in b-values (decrease in stress).Use of a worldwide earthquake data file clearly yields less resolution of the temporal “b” variation than the use of local network studies published by other authors.Incidental to the study, 1124 earthquakes of the NOAA data file yield the Ms − mb relations: Ms = 1.16mb − 0.835 for 4.5 mb 6 and: log10Ms = 0.1432mb − 0.0629 formb > 6 with correlative coefficients of 0.994 and 0.992 respectively. |