1 ) A computer-implemented method for earth modeling of a geologic volume of interest, the method comprising: a. receiving, at a computer processor, a rock model; b. specifying boundary conditions; c. initiating a stress field in at least part of the rock model; d. modeling, via the computer processor, resultant displacements using a finite difference method; e. calculating, via the computer processor, at least one of resultant strains, stresses, elastic energies and elastic stiffnesses based on the resultant displacements; and f. predicting physical changes in the rock model using the at least one of resultant strains, stresses, elastic energies and elastic stiffnesses.