This is an example of the fundamental concept of CHAOS and non linear dynamics.
"It has been said that "Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds." (George Santayana, thanks to Fred Klingener for finding this). However, the mathematical definition is, roughly speaking,
Chaos: effectively unpredictable long time behavior arising in a deterministic dynamical system because of sensitivity to initial conditions.
It must be emphasized that a deterministic dynamical system is perfectly predictable given perfect knowledge of the initial condition, and is in practice always predictable in the short term. The key to long-term unpredictability is a property known as sensitivity to (or sensitive dependence on) initial conditions"
Source;
http://amath.colorado.edu/faculty/jdm/faq-[2].html
Hope this helps get you started.
Lee
