Cascading Failure
A process in a system of interconnected parts in which the failure of one or few parts can trigger the failure of other parts and so on. Such a failure may happen in many types of systems, including power transmission, computer networking, finance, human body systems, and transportation systems.
Origin
The concept emerged from systems theory and network science in the mid-20th century, with particular attention following major power grid blackouts. When one component fails and shifts its load to nearby elements, they become overloaded and fail sequentially. The 2003 Italy blackout and 2006 European blackout demonstrated the severity: in the latter, 33 high-voltage transmission lines tripped within 80 seconds. The Motter–Lai model and percolation theory formalized mathematical analysis of failure propagation in interdependent networks.