Fault gouge may be regarded as self-healing in the respect that after a creep event the upper yield strength along the fault recurs. Creep events begin again once stresses reach the yield point. Movement then extends from a structurally weak point, therafter propogating toward the surface and along the fault. Yet, creep releases sizeable amounts of tectonic strain . The slowness of particle motion accounts for the inability of creep to induce seismic activity.
Creep events tend to be separated by quiet periods of several months.
Event offset increases to a steady state with time and slows when velocity lowers at the end of an event. They present a model of shallow depth crust, a vertical fault plane and a circular slip boundary with a prescribed minimum for the guiding centre of the slip region and an expanding guiding radius during creep. They conjecture that the observed non-uniform creep speed propogation probably is not resultant from geometric effects. Comparison with central California measurements shows general correlation, although the actual creep events exhibit precursors not present in the model data. Creep events along the fault last one day on average, and result in a few mm of slip.