Great advances in the last decade have led towards a much more complete picture of earthquake-related processes. The quality and quantity of data and their availability have improved tremendously, particularly owing to the development of very dense monitoring networks. Several mega-thrust and continental earthquakes have fed the research community with very rich datasets. Analyses of all these data, permitted by vastly improved computational capabilities, have revealed the ubiquitous nature of aseismic slip and unimagined complexities in the nature of fault slip.

The school aims to provide focused, yet diverse perspectives of our current understanding of earthquakes, in the light of these recent advances. Scientists from all around the world, at the cutting-edge of earthquake research, will give lectures together with ‘hands-on’ classes focusing on methods and software. A large spectrum of topics will be covered, from the analysis and modeling of regional-scale geodetic data, to the very detailed investigation of repeating earthquakes at the 100 meter asperity scale, to give as complete a description of earthquake-related phenomena as possible. Since consensus has yet to be reached about many issues, most topics will be covered by two back-to-back lectures with contrasting views. The school is intended to stimulate the emergence of a much wider understanding of the current issues, aimed particularly at engaging young scientists (students and post-docs), and will thus facilitate future collective momentum towards earthquake preparedness and forecasting.