Time-dependent cracking and brittle creep in crustal rocks: A review

Rock fracture under upper crustal conditions is driven not only by applied stresses, but also by time-dependent, chemically activated subcritical cracking processes. These subcritical processes are of great importance for the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of rocks over geological timescales. A macroscopic manifestation of time-dependency in the brittle field is the observation that rocks can deform and fail at constant applied...