Boris Pavlov: Zero-range interaction between tectonic plates and Saint-Venant principle

Contrary to common believe, Earth is not a solid body, but is rather similar to an Egg with cracked shell. The surface of Earth is composed of 13 large tectonic plates which zig-zag fit each other , floating on a liquid underlay - the astenosphere. The fluctuations of the rotation speed of Earth and the hydrodynamics of the astenosphere defined by the inhomogeneity of the energy supply of Earth, cause stresses on relatively small active boundary zones of contact, where the neighboring plates collide. These stresses define increment of frequencies of seismo-gravitational oscillations interpreted as eigenmodes of the tectinic plates. Monitoring of the frequencies combined with fitted solvable models of the localized boundary stresses of the plates provides important data on amount of elastic energy accumulated in the plates and may help to estimate the power of possible earthquakes based on the shift of the eigenfrequencies.