[richlevy]

Armageddon has actually come and gone a few times. In ancient times, when most people were likely to live and die without having traveled more than 50 miles from home, a regional event was 'the end of the world'.

Usually, this involved a volcano, but it could be from an earthquake or even a comet, either directly or from tsunami or flood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth

All of this would seem like ancient history if it weren't for the natural disasters we encountered this year as well the meteor near miss in Russia

http://news.discovery.com/space/aste...ely-131107.htm

or the discovery of large undersea volcanoes that come close to matching the largest in our solar system

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/...n-earth-found/

(sorry for the FoxNews science link, but they can't be wrong all of the time)

So if you have an event that affects an area of 100 to 1000 miles, that qualifies as 'the end of the world'.