Geodesic incompleteness

A Riemannian manifold is geodesically incomplete when some maximal geodesic has a finite endpoint in its affine-parameter interval.

Let $S\subset {\mathbb{R}}^3$ be a smooth surface. Suppose its Gaussian curvature tends to infinity in absolute value along every maximal geodesic with a finite affine-parameter endpoint. Then $S$ is an inextendible embedded surface: a smooth extension would let some geodesic reach the extension boundary in finite time while its curvature remained locally bounded.

The surface of revolutionis geodesically incomplete: a meridian reaches the missing origin in finite length. Its Gaussian curvature, computed using the curvatures of a parametrized surface of revolution, iswhich tends to infinity as $r\downarrow 0$. Every finite-time endpoint of a constant-speed geodesic must approach the origin, the only finite point in the ambient closure missing from $S$, so this surface satisfies the curvature-blowup criterion.