Accurate knowledge of the subsurface stress state and mechanical behaviour is fundamental across a broad spectrum of geoscientific and engineering disciplines — from understanding plate tectonics, geohazards, and mass transport to the development of subsurface resources and infrastructure. The characterisation and management of geo-reservoirs, including geothermal energy, carbon sequestration, hydrogen and gas storage, and nuclear waste repositories, depend strongly on understanding the in situ stress, rock mechanical behaviour, deformation, and fault stability. Mining is another major frontier, as both open-pit and underground operations move to greater depths, encountering complex geological structures, heterogeneous rock masses, and challenging stress conditions, and require improved understanding and prediction of geomechanics.

Yet measuring, constraining, and predicting subsurface geomechanics remains inherently challenging and are subject to significant uncertainties. Addressing these challenges requires continued advances in laboratory and field measurements, modelling and inversion approaches, data integration, and emerging computational techniques — including the rapidly growing capabilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

This session invites contributions presenting novel methodologies, emerging approaches, and ambitious case studies spanning the full breadth of geomechanical research, from laboratory and field observations to numerical modelling, uncertainty analysis, and AI-driven approaches. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Advances in stress orientation and magnitude characterisation
- Novel laboratory and field techniques for stress characterisation
- Advances in 3D and 4D geomechanical modelling across spatial and temporal scales
- Machine learning and AI-driven approaches
- Data-driven integration of geological, geophysical, borehole and remote sensing observations
- Advances in computational methods, inversion techniques, and uncertainty analysis
- Innovative case studies

This session aims to bring together engineers, modellers, and computational experts from academia and industry to discuss the latest advances and persistent challenges in geomechanics. By bridging observations, experiments, modelling, uncertainty, and emerging AI-based approaches, the session seeks to promote interdisciplinary exchange and help shape the next generation of geomechanical methods, tools, and applications.