# domino effect (stacked)

*Ordinarily means:* One event causes a similar event, which causes another, and so on.

A sequence of failures where each part's window ends at a parameter value that is set by the previous part's failure, so no single wall is crossed but the whole chain collapses.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: mechanical, social, informational  ·  Arena: failure propagation

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end), [parameter](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-parameter.condition), [drift](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drift.aimless), [structure](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-structure.arrangement)

**Through:** parts set each other's walls

**Novel properties:**
- sequential-collapse

## Examples
- In 2003, a single tree falling on a power line in Ohio triggered cascading grid failures, blacking out 50 million people across eight states and Ontario. *(engineering)*
- The extinction of the passenger pigeon followed decades of overhunting, habitat loss, and social disintegration once population density fell below viable thresholds. *(biology)*
- Lehman Brothers' collapse in 2008 set off credit market freezes, insurer insolvencies, and global stock plunges within 72 hours. *(economics)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-domino-effect.stacked*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-domino-effect.stacked.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*