This paper examines the interaction between a crack parallel to the free surface of an elastic half-plane and an internal center of dilatation. The problem is decomposed into two auxiliary problems. When the center of dilatation approaches the crack tip, two kinds of singularity are analytically obtained. If the overburden stress and the friction on crack surface are neglected, both modes I and II stress intensity factors (KI and KII ) are induced at the crack tips. The maximum of KI and KII occurs when the center of dilatation is located in front of the crack tips. The tensile cracking is likely to be prohibited by the overburden stress, while shear cracking remains possible even including the effects of both overburden and friction on the crack surface.