There are many similarities between processes in tribological systems and in the earthquake dynamics. Earthquakes can be considered as stick-slip-instabilities of the slow motion of techtonis plates or earth crust blocks. Many concepts used in tribology have been introduced in the geosciences and there are well known pure tribological models trying to describe the dynamics and statistics of earthquakes.

Both tribology (friction physics) and earthquake science develop very intensively but their interrelation is till now very week.

·      Earth crust as a tribological system: models, analogies

·      Laboratory models of earthquakes

·      Large scale models of earthquakes (as ice sheet of lakes)

·      Stick-slip instabilities in frictional systems and their statistical properties

·      Dynamic weakening during seismic slip: flash heating, lubrication ect.

·      Scaling problems: How can laboratory observations of stick slip events be related to real faults?

·      Transition between stable and unstable system behavior