Fracturing in the solid Earth

In the Solid Earth, fracturing is a pervasive phenomenon: weathering, explosion, impact, faulting, earthquake and so forth. Several empirical studies on fractures have demonstrated a power-law dependence of the cumulative number N (r) of fragments of which sizes are larger than size r, N (r) ~ r^-D. This is taken as evidence that the fracturing is a scale-invariant process concerning the size distribution. Therefore, fractures can be described from the viewpoint of a fractal. This description derives mathematically the Gaudin-Schuhmann relation and the Charles' relation and is sufficiently in incorporation of the three theories on size reduction: Rittinger's, Kick's and Bond's theories. -from Author