In them rocks the process would be slow probably negligible the problem really opens up in metals especially conducting and malleable ones.
So consider a pure alloy metal so there are no macroscopic or microscopic discontinuities (like crystals etc) it is a pure metal lattice.
The only real mechanism for failure then is dislocation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DislocationYou are here => Until the 1930s, one of the enduring challenges of materials science was to explain plasticity in microscopic terms.
Your problem is your perfect metal lattices should be much stronger than you will measure.
As shear modulus in metals is typically within the range 20 000 to 150 000 MPa, this is difficult to reconcile with shear stresses in the range 0.5 to 10 MPa observed to produce plastic deformation in experiments.
Dislocation theory from 1934 on sorts out all the problems and it is relatively easy to understand in classical terms. Inbuilt in the classical view however is the thing just wants to stay how it is sitting there quietly on the desk with no forces at play.
In the Quantum world view it is not quite so easy to work out what is going on. How does one describe a dislocation in quantum terms?
So the magic you are after is a Quantum Theory of Dislocation Motion in Metals and now you have gone well outside my areas of expertise
