Fissavi

Fissavi is a fictional term used for purposes of this article to illustrate a concept in speculative geoscience. It refers to a class of fracture networks in brittle rock that can organize into quasi-regular patterns under certain stress regimes. The term is not part of established geology and has no formal definition in peer-reviewed literature; it is sometimes used in educational contexts to discuss how cracks propagate and interact.

Etymology: The word fissavi is a constructed neologism, typically described as a blend of fissure and a fictional suffix -avi. There is no widely accepted etymology in real science.

Mechanism: In the fictional model, fissavi networks form when rocks are subjected to cyclic or multi-axial loading, creating fissures that co-align and coalesce along preferred planes. Over time these fissures can connect to form a lattice-like or pseudofractal network. The patterns may exhibit scale-invariant features and characteristic branching angles that depend on material properties, loading history, and boundary conditions.

Occurrence and use: As a concept, fissavi is used in thought experiments and some science fiction to illustrate crack interaction, fracture toughness, and hazard assessment in brittle materials. It can help teaching by providing a concrete illustration of how microcracks evolve into macro-scale networks, while real-world studies focus on natural fracture systems and fracture mechanics with empirical data.

See also: fracture mechanics, fracture networks, fractals, crack propagation, structural health monitoring.