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Antipodes
Antipodes are two diametrically opposite points on a planet, or any sphere, plotted on a line through its center. If you could put a long skewer into a globe of Earth anywhere you wanted, all the way through to the other side, and the skewer passed through the center of the globe, wherever the skewer came out would be the antipodal point for where it entered. The axis of symmetry is used to determine antipodes and antipodal effects. Antipodal effects refers to the concept that impact to one point of the antipodes can have an effect on the diametrically opposite point. That is, if the planet were to be struck by a meteorite at one location, the antipodal point for that location could, too, become affected.
Antipodal Focus
The antipodal focus is the phenomenon of how impact energy distributes seismic waves after disruption to one of the antipodes. In an example of a vertical impact to the planet, the energy from the impact can bounce off-center and affect various points along the way to the antipode, instead of shooting down or across directly to the antipode. The path that the energy takes to reach the antipode is the antipodal focus. If a new antipodal axis presents itself, due to a shift in the alignment of the antipodes, energy finds a new a path to travel down, thereby losing the antipodal focus.
Advantages
The advantage of studying antipodal focus is that scientists and researchers can predetermine what types of effects would occur at various points on Earth, or any planet,based on a direct impact to one location. In an example, the study of antipodal focusing can let scientists and researchers figure out what the effects would be if a meteorite were to strike Australia or Bermuda, and how such an impact could send seismic waves of energy to the antipodal points. If a significant impact were to occur, the study of antipodal focusing could help people around the world prepare accordingly.
Considerations
Scientists and researchers use antipodal focusing to understand how certain geographic phenomena could have occurred as a result of shock dynamics to one point of an antipode thousands or millions of years ago. By identifying the antipodes on Earth, the origin of things like superswells -- such as the South Pacific Superswell -- could be related to its antipodal opposite where a crater exists. Seismic tomography technology is used to study the inner layers of the Earth to understand shock waves and their relation to antipodal focusing.