Some regions have no earthquakes above magnitude ~5.5, and thus apparently contain only small active faults, with length less than the thickness of the brittle upper crust. Britain and SSW Turkey are examples, with strain rates ~3¿10-20 and ~3¿10-17 s-1. Their seismicity has Gutenberg-Richter parameter b ~1.5, larger than ~1 typical elsewhere, sufficient for equal strain to be associated with each order-of-magnitude of fault length present. These regions deform by increasing lengths and number densities of small faults. When strain reaches ~0.01, these faults will be so closely-spaced that they may interact, forming large faults that cut the brittle layer and take up most later deformation. Deformation involving only small faults will last <1 Myr in regions with strain rate ~10-15 s-1, and is unlikely to be observed.