What is the meaning of cataclysm?

The definition of a cataclysm is that
it is a catastrophic event that produces disaster to a monumental extent. Some
cataclysmic events that are known or speculated about by modern science are the volcano
eruption at Pompeii and the theorized meteorological event that led to mass extinction
of prehistoric animals. Sometimes the word cataclysm is used in
association with the Big Bang Theory to indicate an enormous event of massive chemical
reactions that shook the foundations of what was and created what is.
Cataclysm can also be used to refer to massive flooding on the
scale of that memorialized in many myths and religious records. Indeed the word
cataclysm, which was brought into English between 1625 and 1635, is
derived from the Late Latin word cataclysmos borrowed from the
Greek word kataklysmós meaning flood. So a
cataclysm is any huge catastrophic event that devastates and destroys to a massive
degree.