Repeated earthquake cycles result in the generation and growth of geological structures and geomorphic landforms, and yet which part(s) of the earthquake cycle dominates this permanent deformation of the crust or lithosphere is still largely unknown. Earthquake cycle models generally treat the medium surrounding faults or shear zones as elastic bodies, while geologists often observe and document only the inelastic/permanent component of deformation resulting from earthquake cycles. This problem is remedied by geodesy which provides us with a tool to investigate the mechanics of the lithosphere and understand the time-scales over which elastic and inelastic processes evolve.

In this session we call for original research that use geodetic and other observations to address and quantify the role of inelastic lithospheric processes that result in the growth of geologic structures. We encourage comparisons with (but not limited to) geological and geomorphic observations, thermochronological data and numerical models.