A hypothetical disaster is any sort of major world disaster, human-wrought or natural, for which there is no known historical or geological evidence but scientists have speculated to be possible.List of Hypothetical Disasters: Mega Earthquake A Mega Earthquake is an earthquake exceeding magnitude 9 on the richter scale. Earthquakes of up to magnitude 9.5 (for example the Great Chilean Earthquake) have been recorded. Megatsunami Very large tsunamis can be triggered by meteorite impacts or landslides into a sea. Geological evidence shows megatsunamis have happened in the past. One candidate landslide site is in the Canary Islands, with potential to send a catastrophic tsunami to the East Coast of the USA.  Large meteorite impacts The effects of large meteorite impacts can have global effects - tsunamis, fires, and nuclear winter. Meteorites are believed to have killed significant numbers of species in the past, famously the mass extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.  Super Hurricane A Super Hurricane ( or hypercane) is a very powerful tropical cyclone or hurricane with winds that can be at or over 400 mph and sometimes a mass that can be over 1,000 miles wide in diameter. Such storms have been theorized since the 1800's, but have never been observed. Since the 1960's numerious storms in the Pacific were said to have winds above 400 mph but they are difficult to verify due to the techology at the time. Extreme Firestorm Extreme Firestorms are disaters in which the fire consumes a very large area. Hypothetically many movies and novels described the world being consumed by a huge firestorm. In modern terms, an extreme firestorm is a fire destroying an entire city, state or country. Massive Pandemic A massive Pandemic is a serious outbreak of a potentially fatal disese. Pandemics have occurred in the past; e.g. Black Death in the 1400s and the Spanish Flu of 1918. Many scientists believe that there will be another great Pandemic or Epidemic in the near future, quite possibly an outbreak of avian influenza. Supervolcano A very large volcanic eruption can cause a nuclear winter effect on a global scale. The Yellowstone Caldera is a famous repeating supervolcano .  Astrophysical events It has been theorized that at least in one occasion mass extinctions, the Ordovician-Silurian extinction events, were caused by a hypernova . The explosion of a nearby hypergiant star (100-200 times bigger than our own Sun) can generate a gamma-ray burst with potential to destroy the majority of life on Earth.
Other cataclysmic stellar events may have similar effects, such as the merger of two neutron stars. The processes that produce high energy gamma-ray bursts are unknown. Mega Heatwave or Greenhouse Effect A Mega Heatwave is an extreme kind of heatwave that affects a large area. This disaster can last for months or years compared to normal heatwave and can happen in a sudden or steady rate (The Greenhouse Effect for example). The effect of a mega heatwave is severe drought, famaine, melting of the polar ice caps and loss of plant and animal life.
Global warming is believed to be slowly melting the polar ice caps. Sea levels around the world would rise by several meters, permanently flooding large areas of land. Global warming can also affect ecosystems, killing species and causing draught and famine. This disaster is not likely to occur suddenly, but over decades or centuries. Third and Fourth World Wars World War III and World War IV are hypothetical wars to follow World War II. The numbering of the next World War is, however, disputed because some people believe that the Cold War was World War III and the War on Terror is World War IV.  Political Collapse, Mass Civil Disorder Political Collapse and Mass Civil Disorder are disasters that occur when a government is overthrown by force and a country is thrown into chaos or even civil war by the after effect. Such disasters has happened in the past, most recently in Iraq. Widespread Economic Collapse An Economic Collapse is a sudden and simultaneous downfall of an economy worldwide. Economic collapses has happened in the past (e.g. Wall Street Crash of 1929) but not on a global scale. It can have widespread results like the Great Depression of the 1930's. A possible senario is that one country expriences a economic crisis which causes a chain reaction until the whole world experiences the direct and after effect. This can happen in days, weeks or months. Terrorism Terrorism has long plagued humankind on a local scale. With the possibility of weapons of mass destruction falling into terrorists' hands terrorism has the potential to affect ever larger populations. Sudden mass migration As an effect of another disaster, large numbers of people from one country can flee to neighbouring countries. This sudden migration can cause a widespread humanitarian problems, or trigger civil unrest. One disaster can thus trigger an even more serious one.
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