Knowledge of the in situ stress in rock mass is required in the design of underground openings, in the earthquake studies, and in the extraction of oil and gas. The magnitudes and directions of in situ stresses, obtained by hydraulic fracturing, provide the crucial design parameters - layout (orientation, depth, and cross-sectional shape) of the opening, frictional strength of the fault, and orientation of the fracture propagation. The following are the examples of underground activities requiring the state of in situ stresses.

• Nuclear waste disposal repository design
  (YMP, WIPP)
• Oil & gas storage design
  (SPR)
• Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) design
  (Norton)
• Pumped energy storage design
  (Bath County, Smith Mt. Lake, Tianhuangping, Snowy Mountains Scheme)
• Transportation tunnel design
• Earthquake prediction
  (Earthquake list, San Andreas, Parkfield)
• Man-made earthquake studies
• Plate tectonics
  (USGS, Earthquakes, platetectonics.com)
• Waste injection for environmental restoration
  (SPE)
• Enhancement of oil / groundwater recovery
  (Fracture toughness)
• Geothermal energy extraction
  (Fenton Hill, Soultz, Deep Heat Mining, Geocrack, Long Valley)
• Borehole stability problems
  (DEM, Karlsruhe)