Grobbrüchigem

Grobbrüchigem is a German-language adjective used in technical writing to describe materials, textures, or fracture patterns that exhibit coarse brittleness. In geology, petrology, materials science, and archaeology, the term can be applied to rocks, concretes, ceramics, or glass that tend to break into large, angular fragments with little plastic deformation before failure. It conveys a characteristic brittle response that contrasts with finer or more ductile fracture textures.

The term is formed from grob, meaning coarse, and brüchig, meaning brittle. As a compound adjective, grobbrüchig is inflected according to German grammar, with forms such as grobbrüchigem appearing in contexts requiring dative or masculine/neuter singular agreement. In English-language summaries, it is often rendered descriptively as “coarsely brittle” or “coarse-brittle,” though direct translations may vary with context.

Grobbrüchigem is not a universally standardized term with a single fixed definition across all disciplines. Its precise interpretation can differ between texts and fields, depending on the material studied and the criteria used to assess fracture texture. It is typically used as a qualitative descriptor rather than as a quantitative measure, complementing other terms for texture and fracture behavior. See also brittle fracture, fracture texture, and rock fragmentation for related concepts.