Understanding the physics of cracking and deformation is critical for understanding seismic activity in the earth. Each of these phenomena involve complex physical processes over a range of length scales from atoms to tectonic plates. Recent advances in physics, mechanics, materials science, seismology, hydrogeology and geophysics are not often communicated across disciplines. This session will bring together a diverse interdisciplinary group to explore the physical processes that control deformation and rupture at all scales from laboratory results to field observations and seismic hazard estimation. It will promote new interdisciplinary research directions to the understanding of physical phenomena from solid state processes to seismic scale events taking into account the influence of non linear effects in seismology

- Physics of cracking: from Solid State to Seismology

- The role of fluids in fracture mechanisms

- Modelling and inversion for the earthquake source

- Statistical Seismology and Statistical Mechanics in Earth Physics and Seismic Hazard

- Non-linear dynamics: Complexity, Chaos and Criticality

- Geophysical Techniques applied to Earthquake Physics

- Earthquake precursors and predictability

- Scaling issues: from laboratory results to field observations

- Assessment of seismic hazard in nonlinear seismology