Surface defects or micro-cracks break the protective passive layer of a material. This allows moisture, oxygen, and corrosive ions (like chlorides in marine environments) to penetrate deep into the substrate.

Crack began as a rumor. A language that felt like C’s rebellious younger sibling—no runtime, no garbage collector, just raw memory access and a compiler that trusted you completely. Its syntax was sparse, its error messages cryptic, and its power absolute. You could build a web server in a weekend or segfault in a millisecond. Crack developers wore their crashes like war wounds.

Once oxidation begins, the volume of the rust (iron oxide) can be several times larger than the original metal.