Hierarchical fracture networks

Abstract

During a not-very-scientific search on the Internet for the purposes of the introduction to this chapter, I came up with a few headlines from the French news: Urban fracture (Le Monde), CNE: first scene of rupture in the industrial tribunal (Libération) and Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise, the rupture (Madame Figaro). These are fine examples of the figurative use of the words rupture and fracture. The words are associated with abrupt and important events resulting from tensions that have often been steadily growing over a certain time. A fracture or rupture separates what was once whole, and it is usually irreversible. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.