CREEP: Creep Rate, Episodicity, and Earthquake Potential - Technical Activity Group

Christie D. Rowe, Elizabeth H. Madden, & Michael Floyd

Submitted August 30, 2026, SCEC Contribution #15583, 2026 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #096

Creeping faults impact seismic hazard in two ways. First, accounting for displacement that occurs during fault creep may reduce the moment expected to be released in earthquakes, reducing the estimated hazard. Second, creep is an important mechanism for redistributing stress, which may impact heterogeneous loading and bring faults nearer to, or further from, failure. This contrast underscores the need to better understand the mechanisms and role of creep, including afterslip, in the earthquake cycle. High precision records are needed, as creep was only discovered a few decades ago and still is rarely measured. The San Francisco Bay Area has one of the world's richest instrumental records, revealing complex patterns in time and space. However, the continuity of this dataset is threatened by mounting capacity gaps and lack of funding. We propose to train a cohort to continue building this extraordinary dataset. This training also will prepare the cohort for high-precision, rapid response measurements after a major earthquake. The field and instrumental skills required for both tasks overlap substantially. The primary data arising from these efforts will provide the basis for modeling across the earthquake cycle, including complex rheological models that are yet to be realized. We draw on expertise from the California and U.S. Geological Surveys, academia across a variety of disciplines, and public utilities, who have significant interest in creeping faults due to displacement hazards to underground infrastructure. Knowledge transfer will be accomplished through contributions to SCEC Community Earth Models, journal articles and training modules.

Key Words
TAG, creep, field measurements, instrumentation,

Citation
Rowe, C. D., Madden, E. H., & Floyd, M. (2026, 08). CREEP: Creep Rate, Episodicity, and Earthquake Potential - Technical Activity Group. Poster Presentation at 2026 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Earthquake Geology