Earthquakes and rock creep: (Part I: Creep characteristics of rocks and the origin of aftershocks)

Many seismic phenomena are adequately explained on the basis of a simple elastic theory of rock characteristics in which strain is proportional to stress and is independent of time. It is known, however, that the elastic characteristics of solids in general and rocks in particular depart greatly from these simple assumptions. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the possible relationship of this departure to the origin of aftershocks and to the characteristics of earthquake sequences. Part I is concerned with the creep characteristics of rocks and the origin of aftershocks. Part II, which will appear at a later date, discusses earthquake sequences