Objective Southern Europe and Turkey lie within the highest seismic risk areas in the world. Understanding the physico-chemical processes controlling earthquake generation is essential in seismic hazard assessment. Destructive earthquakes nucleate at depth (10-15 km), therefore monitoring active faults at the Earth’s surface, or interpreting seismic waves, yields only limited information on earthquake mechanics. We propose to investigate earthquake processes by: 1) installing a new world class high velocity rock friction apparatus to perform experiments under deformation conditions typical of earthquakes; 2) studying fossil seismic sources now exhumed at the Earth's surface; 3) analyzing natural and experimental fault rock materials using a novel multidisciplinary approach involving state of the art techniques in microstructural analysis, mineralogy and petrology; 4) producing new theoretical earthquake models calibrated (and tightly constrained) by field observations, mechanical data from rock-friction experiments and analyses of natural and experimental fault rocks. The integration of such an original and complementary data set shall provide an unprecedented insight into the mechanics of seismic faulting. The installation of the new dedicated rock friction apparatus will allow the European Union to become a key world player competing at the top scientific level in the study of earthquake mechanics. The proposed study has additional implications for understanding other friction-controlled processes important in Earth sciences and hazard mitigation (e.g. rock landslides). Friction also has broad applications in the industry, including innovative but poorly understood production processes. Our experimental results will help to improve industrial milling techniques and investigate the mechanical-chemical transformations induced during milling. The latter is the basis of a new technique for the production of hydrocarbons and hydrogen from inorganic and organic materials. Fields of science natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryhydrocarbonsnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologyseismologynatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologymineralogysocial sciencessociologygovernancecrisis managementseismic risk managementnatural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologypetrology Keywords Comminution Earthquake Friction Industrial Applications Landslides Milling Tribochemistry Tribology Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-PE8 - ERC Starting Grant - Products and process engineering Call for proposal ERC-2007-StG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Coordinator ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI GEOFISICA E VULCANOLOGIA EU contribution € 1 787 600,00 Address Via di vigna murata 605 00143 Roma Italy See on map Region Centro (IT) Lazio Roma Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Giulio Di Toro (Dr.) Administrative Contact Sofia Mariano (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all ISTITUTO NAZIONALE DI GEOFISICA E VULCANOLOGIA Italy EU contribution € 1 787 600,00 Address Via di vigna murata 605 00143 Roma See on map Region Centro (IT) Lazio Roma Activity type Research Organisations Principal investigator Giulio Di Toro (Dr.) Administrative Contact Sofia Mariano (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA Italy EU contribution € 204 400,00 Address Via 8 febbraio 2 35122 Padova See on map Region Nord-Est Veneto Padova Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Domenico Rio (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data