Robert O. Burford S.Thomas Crough 1977 <p><span>Fault-creep events measured on the San Andreas and related faults near Hollister, California, can be described by a rheological model consisting of a spring, power-law dashpotand sliding block connected in series. An empirical creep-event law, derived from many creep-event records analyzed within the constraints of the model, provides a remarkably simple and accurate representation of creep-event behavior. The empirical creep law is expressed by the equation:&nbsp;</span><i>D</i><span>(</span><i>t</i><span>)=&nbsp;</span><i>D</i>_<i>f</i><span>&nbsp;[1−1/{</span><i>ct</i><span>(</span><i>n</i><span>−1)</span><i>D</i>_<i>f</i>^<i>n</i>−1<span>+1}/</span>^{(<i>n</i>−1)}<span>] where&nbsp;</span><i>D</i><span>&nbsp;is the value of displacement at time&nbsp;</span><i>t</i><span>&nbsp;following the onset of an event,&nbsp;</span><i>D</i>_<i>f</i><span>&nbsp;is the final equilibrium value of the event displacementand&nbsp;</span><i>C</i><span>&nbsp;is a proportionality constant. This discovery should help determine whether the time—displacement character of creep events is controlled by the material properties of fault gouge, or by other parameters.</span></p> application/pdf 10.1016/0040-1951(77)90024-5 en Elsevier Empirical law for fault-creep events article