The Cataclysm

Disaster / Destruction

Earth is destroyed due to a scientific experiment gone wrong.

Scientists attempting to harness core energy succeed in cutting through the crust and mantle, but oxygen hitting the earth's core causes it to destabilize. This results in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions all over the world, resulting in millions dead, parts of continents split apart or underwater, less oxygen in the atmosphere, and a lower overall temperature due to ash in the atmosphere blocking the sun (to a small degree). Nuclear bombs exploding due to nearby seismic activity result in additional fatalities and EMPs rippling across the globe, even through the atmosphere and into space. Any astronauts in space would be dead within hours, without even knowing what happened, due to total space station shutdown.