The Symposium on Acoustic Emissions in Geotechnical Engineering Practice was held 24 June 1981, during the June Committee Week of the American Society for Testing and Materials in Detroit, Michigan. ASTM Committee D18 on Soil and Rock for Engineering Purposes sponsored the symposium. V. P. Drnevich, University of Kentucky, and R. E. Gray, GAI Consultants, Inc., organized the symposium and served as editors of this publication.