Benchmark 11C
Common Themes: Constancy and Change
Grades 9-12, page 275

A system in equilibrium may return to the same state of equilibrium if the disturbances it experiences are small. But large disturbances may cause it to escape that equilibrium and eventually settle into some other state of equilibrium.
 

See the general discussion in Unifying Concepts and Processes: Systems, order, and organization and Evolution and equilibrium