# Fig.meca - change colour of beachball

**URL:** <https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/fig-meca-change-colour-of-beachball/1643>\
**Category:** PyGMT Q&A\
**Created:** [May 3, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/fig-meca-change-colour-of-beachball/1643 "2021-05-03T20:45:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TheGermanSquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@TheGermanSquirrel](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/TheGermanSquirrel)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2021, 8:45pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/fig-meca-change-colour-of-beachball/1643/1 "2021-05-03T20:45:39Z")

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Hi,

Is there a way of changing the color of the compressional quadrants of the focal mechanism? By default, the beachball is black.

My code so far:

```
# store focal mechanisms parameters in a dict
focal_mechanism = dict(strike=330, dip=30, rake=90, magnitude=3)

# pass the focal mechanism data to meca in addition to the scale and event location
fig.meca(focal_mechanism, scale="1c", 
         longitude=124.3, latitude=4.1, depth=12.0)

```

I understand that the _-G_ or _pen_ option is usually used to specify the color in GMT but I wasn’t able to pass this on successfully to fig.meca. The [fig.meca documentation](https://www.pygmt.org/latest/api/generated/pygmt.Figure.meca.html) does not elaborate.

Thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![seisman](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/seisman/32/4_2.png) [@seisman](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/seisman)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2021, 12:11am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/fig-meca-change-colour-of-beachball/1643/2 "2021-05-04T00:11:00Z")

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Yes, the **-G** option is not aliased yet. Currently, you can simply use `G="blue"` when calling `Figure.meca()`.