Considerable progress has been made recently in quantifying geometrical and physicalproperties of fault surfaces and adjacent fractured and granulated damage zones inactive faulting environments. There has also been significant progress in developingrheologies and computational frameworks that can model the dynamics of fault zoneprocesses. This volume provides state-of-the-art theoretical and observational resultson the mechanics, structure and evolution of fault zones. Subjects discussed includedamage rheologies, development of instabilities, fracture and friction, dynamic ruptureexperiments, and analyses of earthquake and fault zone data.
