Crustal faults are complex natural systems whose physical and chemical properties change with time over several scales. Tracking the evolution of a fault system toward the generation of a large earthquake requires thus a multi-disciplinary approach, that involves the analysis and modelling of seismological, geodetic, geochemical and other geophysical observations. To understand the fault behaviour, near-fault observatories have been deployed in Europe and worldwide, as dense, innovative infrastructures that monitor the underlying Earth crust providing state-of-the-art, high-resolution multidisciplinary time series.

This session promotes contributions aimed at characterizing physical and chemical processes related to the fault evolution through cross-disciplinary analysis and modelling of near fault observations. We encourage the submission of works that investigate faulting processes such as earthquake preparation, nucleation and triggering processes, aseismic transients and forcing mechanisms such as creeping that may influence further rupture development, diffusive processes associated to fluid migration and fluid-rock interaction, accurate location and characterization of the micro-seismicity to constrain space-time-magnitude patterns and other tectonic transients that may affect fault tectonics.