This paper develops a moment tensor inversion technique suited for analysis of long-period body waves from distant, shallow earthquakes. In addition to the moment tensor the procedure resolves precise source depths (¿5 km) and estimates the duration of faulting. The technique is applied to digital SRO-DWWSSN recordings of outer rise, intraplate earthquakes. These earthquakes result from bending of oceanic plates prior to subduction. Bending induces horizontal tension near the top of the lithosphere and horizontal compression near its base. A neutral surface separates compressional from tensional regimes. An examination of 11 bending earthquakes in the period January 1981 to July 1982 indicates that the depth to the neutral surface is not geographically uniform. Although the seismicity sample is very small, the depth of the neutral surface appears to correlate with the position of the trench-arc in the evolutionary sequence of Uyeda and Kanamori (1979). In particular, neutral surfaces at strongly coupled Chilean-type plate boundaries are elevated as much as 15 km above those at weakly coupled Mariana-type boundaries. This correlation implies that nonuniformities in neutral surface height are created by variations in regional cmpressive stress resulting from contrasts in plate-plate coupling. To account for the observed heights, maximum interplate compressive stresses must be comparable with stresses derived from bending.