Incident pit

As time moves forward, seemingly innocuous incidents push a situation further toward a bad situation and escape from the incident pit becomes more difficult.

An incident pit may or may not have a point of no return such as an event horizon.

[1][2] The Incident Pit concept was introduced as part of British Sub Aqua Club Diving Officer's Conference Report on 8 December 1973 by E John Towse, Chairman of the BSAC Diving Incidents Panel.

The Pit was first described by Towse at a Diving Medical Conference at Stoke Mandeville Hospital organised by Dr John Betts earlier in 1973.

[excessive quote] Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds, uses incident pits as a key plot point in the context of an Interstellar Ark.