Catastrophism

• anthropology

1. the belief that the fossil forms represented in each layer of the earth were destroyed by a catastrophic event and that the next set of plants and animals represented a new creation event and were organisms that survived the catastrophe.
   Source: Anthromorphemics

• geology

1. The hypothesis that a series of immense, brief, worldwide upheavals changed the Earth's crust greatly and can account for the development of mountains, valleys, and other features of the Earth. See also uniformitarianism.