Natural hazards events such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions involve activation of coupled thermo-hydro-chemo-mechanical processes in rocks. The 7th Euro-conference of Rock Physics and Geomechanics was held September 25 to 30, 2007, in Erice (Italy), to explore how rock physics experiments and models can facilitate understanding and constraint of natural hazards mechanisms, and, to foster cross-disciplinary collaborations.

The present book assembles unpublished contributions to the Erice conference. It presents new laboratory data, theoretical and numerical rock physics models and field observations relevant to the study of natural hazards. In particular, several papers are devoted to rock failure and explore the relationship between the competing deformation micro-mechanisms, as measured and characterized by acoustic emission activity and by microstructural observations, and strain localization. Several others investigate shear-induced anisotropy of mechanical and/or transport properties, both in large-scale geologic objects and in laboratory samples. The remaining papers treat various aspects of rock physics and their industrial applications such as geothermics and reservoir characterization.

The book is intended for researchers and graduate students in the Earth sciences, who are interested in surface and crustal processes, as well as for geotechnical engineers.