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[References: 27 tit.]

A comprehensive structural study has been performed to explore deformation and wear debris formation on friction surfaces of metallic materials. A hierarchy of structural scales of plastic deformation and failure during wear has been established. The nanoscale plays the major role in the hierarchical self-organization of multiscale debris formation processes. On this scale, bifurcational interstitial states arise in zones of local lattice curvature, with plastic distortion and motion of nonequilibrium point defects which determine the nonlinear dynamics of structure formation and wear of surface layers. Nonequilibrium vacancies on lattice sites form microporosity through the coalescence mechanism under plastic distortion. The microporosity is a precursor of meso- and macroscale plastic shearing that defines wear debris formation.