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Use fixed spatial coordinates in a stationary heterogeneous Earth and define the operatorHere the elastic stiffness tensor has its minor and major symmetries, and the physical body force per unit volume is $q_i=\rho f_i$. The retarded elastodynamic Green tensor $G_i^j(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{\xi },t)$ is the displacement in direction $i$ due to a unit physical force impulse in direction $j$ at $\mathbf{\xi }$:It satisfies the actual Earth's homogeneous boundary conditions, including zero traction on the free surface and continuity of displacement and traction at bonded internal interfaces. Integration through $t=0$ gives $\rho (\mathbf{x}){\partial }_t{G}_i^j(0^{+})={\delta }_i^j\delta (\mathbf{x}-\mathbf{\xi })$, with $G(0^{+})=0$. No spherical symmetry is required.

For zero initial conditions, form the convolutionApplying $\mathcal{L}$ to this expression uses the defining Dirac delta function to give $\rho (\mathbf{x})f_i(\mathbf{x},t)$. Causality gives zero initial conditions, and each Green column supplies the required boundary conditions. The positive-energy uniqueness argument then identifies this expression with the physical response. The source factor is $\rho (\mathbf{\xi })$ because $f$ is force per unit mass, whereas the Green tensor was normalized to unit force.

A force dipole is a limiting pair of opposite point forces separated by a small vector. Put $+F_j$ at $\mathbf{\xi }+\epsilon \mathbf{d}/2$ and $-F_j$ at $\mathbf{\xi }-\epsilon \mathbf{d}/2$, and hold $D_{jk}=\epsilon F_j{d}_k$ fixed as $\epsilon \to 0$. Expansion of the two Dirac delta functions givesIts resultant force is zero, and integration by parts gives its radiated displacement as ${\int }_0^t{D}_{jk}(\tau ){\partial }_{{\xi }_k}{G}_i^j(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{\xi },t-\tau )d\tau$. Thus the source derivative of the elastodynamic Green tensor represents a dipole with force direction $j$ and separation direction $k$.

For the surface source choose a normal $\mathbf{n}$ from the minus side to the plus side and defineThe same normal is used in both tractions. If the elastic coefficients are continuous through the surface, the distributional gradient of a piecewise smooth displacement is ${\partial }_j{u}_i=({\partial }_j{u}_i{)}_{\mathrm{reg}}+b_i{n}_j{\delta }_{\Sigma }$. Its stress therefore has a singular part $c_{ijkl}{b}_k{n}_l{\delta }_{\Sigma }$. Taking the divergence includes the regular stress jump, so a field satisfying the source-free equations on both sides has equivalent sourceIn particular, the signs follow from the chosen jump convention, not from an unspecified orientation. The elastodynamic surface-jump representation is consequentlywith the Green tensor evaluated at $(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{\xi },t-\tau )$. The first term is a surface distribution of forces, and the second is a surface distribution of dipoles.

One can derive the same formula without multiplying discontinuous material coefficients by a surface delta. Apply integration by parts on the two sides of $\Sigma$ to the field $u$ and the reciprocal Green field $v$. Major symmetry cancels the volume strain terms; the spatial identity iswhen the temporal terms are handled by the retarded time convolution. More explicitly, take $v_i(\mathbf{\xi },\tau )=G_i^a(\mathbf{\xi },\mathbf{x},t-\tau )$, extend the zero-initial-data solution causally to $\tau <0$, and integrate over all source times. Integration by parts cancels the two temporal terms, with zero endpoint terms; the causal supports subsequently reduce the representation to $0\le \tau \le t$. The Green impulse contributes $-u_a(\mathbf{x},t)$ on the left. The two outward face normals are $\mathbf{n}$ and $-\mathbf{n}$, so their sum on the right is $-[u_i]t_i(v)+v_i[t_i]$. Moving it to the other side gives $[u_i]t_i(v)-v_i[t_i]$. The same identity applied to two force Green fields with interchanged source and receiver proves the reciprocal relation $G_i^j(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{\xi },t)=G_j^i(\mathbf{\xi },\mathbf{x},t)$; hence the displayed surface formula follows. On a bonded material interface the Green displacement and common Green traction are continuous: $[u_i]t_i(v)$ is then the unambiguous version of the dipole term, evaluated with the matching one-sided coefficients. External free-surface terms vanish because both tractions vanish.

For a fault in isotropic material, the Lamé parameters giveTangential slip obeys $\mathbf{b}\cdot \mathbf{n}=0$, and ordinary fault traction is continuous across the two faces. Therefore the source is a double-couple fault source withFor a uniform patch of area $A$ with $\mathbf{b}=b{\mathbf{e}}_1$ and $\mathbf{n}={\mathbf{e}}_3$, its integrated seismic moment tensor isThe $13$ dipole is a force in the slip direction separated in the normal direction; the $31$ dipole is a normal force separated in the slip direction. Their equal and opposite torques cancel. The symmetric trace-free seismic moment tensor has eigenvalues $M_0,-M_0,0$, with zero resultant force and torque. A temporal stress drop on a fault is not a jump of traction between its two simultaneously matching faces; it does not add a single-force layer to this tangential-slip representation.