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Definition of cataclysm : 1. An extensive overflow or sweeping flood of water; a deluge.
2. Any violent catastrophe, involving sudden and extensive changes of the earth's surface.

Synonyms:

help, flood, alluvion, denouement, disaster, cataract, sequel, revolution, tragedy, big, inundation, convulsion, overflow, freshet, misfortune, deluge, change, downpour, mischance, disturbance, torrent, Niagara, study at disaster, upheaval, calamity, mishap, catastrophe, spate

Usage examples:

• But in a cataclysm, the obvious wise selfishness is generosity, and the cry is, " Stand together, for, singly, we perish." - "The Deluge", David Graham Phillips.
• Berlioz himself calls his Requiem " a musical cataclysm." - "Musicians of To-Day", Romain Rolland Commentator: Claude Landi.
• The acute crisis was over, the danger of a cataclysm had been averted, but the situation that remained was big with problems full of menace and uncertainty. - "The New York Stock Exchange in the Crisis of 1914", Henry George Stebbins Noble.