Catastrophe

Catastrophe or catastrophic comes from the Greek κατά (kata) = down; στροφή (strophē) = turning (Greek: καταστροφή). It may refer to the following:

Look up catastrophe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A general or specific event

Disaster, a devastating event
The Asia Minor Catastrophe, a Greek name for the 1923 Greek defeat at the Greco-Turkish War
The Holocaust, also known by the Hebrew name HaShoah which translates to "The Catastrophe"
The Chernobyl catastrophe, also known as the Chernobyl disaster
Blue sky catastrophe, a type of bifurcation of a periodic orbit, where the orbit vanishes into the blue sky
Catastrophic failure, complete failure of a system from which recovery is impossible (e.g. a bridge collapses)
Climate catastrophe, also known as climate apocalypse
Ecological catastrophe, a disaster to the natural environment due to human activity
Error catastrophe, extinction of an organism as a result of excessive mutations
The Ikiza, which translates to the catastrophe from Kirundi, in Central Africa
Infrared catastrophe or infrared divergence is a situation in particle physics in which a particular integral diverges
Iron catastrophe, runaway melting of early Earth's interior as a result of potential energy release from sinking iron and nickel melted by heat of radioactive decay
Malthusian catastrophe, prediction of a forced return to subsistence-level conditions once population growth has outpaced agricultural production
Mitotic catastrophe, an event in which a cell is destroyed during mitosis
Nakba, Arabic word meaning catastrophe, referring to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, and ongoing ethnic cleansing by Israel of Palestinian Arabs
Nedelin catastrophe, launch pad accident at Baikonur test range of Baikonur Cosmodrome
Oxygen catastrophe, the biologically induced appearance of dioxygen (O2) in Earth's atmosphere
Toba catastrophe theory, hypothesis that the Toba supervolcanic eruption caused a global volcanic winter and 1,000-year-long cooling episode
Ultraviolet catastrophe, the prediction by classical physics that a black body will emit radiation at infinite power
Vacuum catastrophe, the discrepancy between theoretical and measured vacuum energy density in cosmology

Art, entertainment, and media

Fictional entities

Catastrophe, the main antagonist in The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs

Film

Catastrophe (film), a 1977 American documentary film
The Catastrophe (film), a 2011 American short film

Literature

Catastrophe (Morris and McGann book), a 2009 non-fiction book by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann
Catastrophe (drama), the climax and resolution of a plot in ancient Greek drama and poetry
Catastrophe (play), a 1982 short play by Samuel Beckett
Catastrophe: Risk and Response, a 2004 non-fiction book by Richard Posner

Music

Catastrophic (band), a band featuring Trevor Peres

Television

Catastrophe (2008 TV series), a five-part science series on Channel 4, presented by Tony Robinson
Catastrophe (2015 TV series), a 2015 sitcom starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney

Other uses

Catastrophe theory, a theory by the French mathematician René Thom and the object of its study
Catastrophic fire danger, a level in the Australian Fire Danger Rating System