Abstract. Intense crises of crustal stress appear to cross large regions, and to precede by several months the eventual occurrence of some strong earthquake within them. The phenomenon is not linear, and the stress control reflects some wide scale-size rather than local effects. The stress propagation through the crust can be effectively monitored by means of acoustic emission (AE) techniques (ultrasounds). The correlation is here investigated between crustal stress crises and the total release of seismic energy within some space domain around the AE recording site. Some clear inferences can be envisaged, although a significant diagnosis of the state of the crust within a given region ought to request arrays of simultaneously operated AE recorders. Some case histories are described dealing with the Italian peninsula and with the Cephallonia Island.