Microcracking of salt under creep

During creep in rock salt samples, the concentration of microcracks decreases, due to their amalgamation and formation of larger cracks at rates proportional to the load. Moreover, the increase in the number of cracks, according to the acoustic emission and the electromagnetic radiation data, is the result of the formation of sub-micron cracks, which were undetected because of inadequate sensitivity and resolution of the microanalyzer.