Abstract: According to the hypothesis of fault failure of earthquake genesis, this paper concerns with a stress pattern describing qualitatively the process of genesis o'f earthquakes by means of a three-dimensional stress circle and Navier-Coulomb strength theory. This pattern can be used to estimate the tendency of rise and fall of earthquake risk of an area and to show the heteromorphic character of earthquake precurosry phenomena which in turn explains certain problems arising'from earthquake prediction practice.