# ripple effect (stacked)

*Ordinarily means:* a small event that causes a series of further events, one after another.

a single cause that moves through a chain of dependencies, each next one poised to change only because the prior one did, revealing how much has already aligned for propagation.

- Computed level: L12 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emergence  ·  Arena: everyday language

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [cause](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason), [follows](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-follows.sequential), [dependence](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-dependence.condition), [interaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-interaction.process), [change](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-change.process)

**Through:** stacked dependency

**Novel properties:**
- stacked dependency

## Examples
- The 2008 failure of Lehman Brothers triggered global credit markets to freeze within 72 hours. *(economics)*
- A single power-line fault in Ohio cascaded into the Northeast Blackout of 2003, cutting electricity to 50 million people. *(engineering)*
- The 2011 Tohoku earthquake shifted Japan's coastline by 4 meters, altering tides globally. *(geophysics)*

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