Final answer:
Fault creep exhibits gradual and continuous displacement along faults, releasing built-up tectonic stress without causing significant seismic events. It involves the plates sliding parallel to each other at a consistent rate, often seen in strike-slip or dip-slip faults.
Step-by-step explanation:
Fault creep is a geological phenomenon characterized by slow, gradual displacement along faults. This motion is typically without major seismic events, allowing stress to be released over time. The characteristics of faults that experience fault creep include continuous or intermittent sliding that relieves built-up tectonic stress with minimal earthquakes, often observed in the motion of plates sliding parallel to each other along faults at a rate of several centimeters per year.
Faults can be categorized as strike-slip faults with horizontal displacement or dip-slip faults such as normal and reverse faults. Normal faults are associated with extensional forces where the hanging wall moves downward, while reverse faults and thrust faults occur under compressional stresses, pushing the hanging wall upward. Thrust faults are special reverse faults with a gentle dip. The action of fault creep, by contrast, does not fit neatly into these types because its movement is gradual and steady, with less sudden displacement compared to typical fault movements that result in earthquakes.