Christie Rowe, McGill University Earthquake recurrence in time and space is recorded in the rock record (deep/ long term) and sedimentary record (shallow/recent). Mechanistic understandings of earthquakes have not so far made a major contribution to forecasting but this could represent an area of scientific potential growth. In this talk I will review recent progress on understanding controls on the earthquake cycle from structural studies in the rock record. I will focus on evidence for post-seismic healing mechanisms which offer an opportunity to relate fault strength evolution to timescales. I will explore implications and opportunities for better integrating structural geology and paleoseismology to understand earthquake recurrence.