absorption and occurs at high speeds--up to 2133.6 m/s in steel. In most cases brittle fracture will continue even when loading is discontinued.

In brittle crystalline materials, fracture can occur by cleavage as the result of tensile stress acting normal to crystallographic planes with low bonding (cleavage planes). In amorphous solids, by contrast, the lack of a crystalline structure results in a conchoidal fracture,