Where, when and why will the next big earthquake happen? What damage could it cause and how can we mitigate it? Geophysicists analyse the seismic sources of earthquakes and then use them to image the Earth’s internal structure. Meanwhile, Civil Engineers investigate the response of the shallow, softer Earth, and phenomena like soil liquefaction, which they have to understand and design for. In a joint lecture, Professor of Seismology Michael Kendall and Dr Dimitris is Karamitros of Civil Engineering compare the approaches of, and explore the synergies between, these not so disparate fields of study.