The localized separation of the two cracks faces near the tip of a shear microcrack, which is otherwise kept closed by a normal pressure, is suggested as a possible mechanism for the propagation of microcracks in rocks loaded in triaxial compression. Finite element calculations show that when a shear crack runs along a surface of elastic discontinuity (interface between different minerals or between differently oriented domains of an anisotropic mineral), it can remain open at its tip while a normal pressure acts across that part of the crack which has reclosed. Such a separation bubble allows the shear crack to propagate in plane without frictional sliding taking place. It is speculated that dilatancy could be the result of a residual separation of the reclosed crack faces. On the basis this mechanism a heuristic failure model is derived, which can correlate the published trixial failure data of Westerly granite up to a confining pressure of 2000 MPa (20 kbar).