The phrase "a shattering event" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe an event that has a profound and devastating impact on individuals or communities.
Example: "The news of the earthquake was a shattering event for the entire region, leaving many in shock and mourning."
Alternatives: "a devastating occurrence" or "a traumatic incident".
It took a shattering event in Chris Preddie's life to inspire him to write poetry.
The first was the collapse of Penn Central in 1970 — a shattering event that the credit agencies failed to foresee.
You witness a shattering event, or fall victim to it — and as the poet Walter de la Mare put it, "the human brain works slowly: first the blow, hours afterward the bruise".
Kissinger's greatest achievement, however, was the opening to China, a shattering event in its own right, and a masterstroke in strengthening Washington's hand vis-à-vis the Soviet Union.
The presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia was a shattering event in the country's history, calling into question the ancient bargain between the royal family and the Wahhabi clerics, whose blessing allows the Saud family to rule.
It was a shattering event for Hemingway writer, because it marked the final break between the United States and Cuba, and therefore the impossibility of his return to the home he loved.
For survivors, the smallest incident can feel like a life shattering event.
Chromothripsis, which is a single chromosomal shattering event followed by reconstitution of the genomic fragments, results in localized, complex rearrangements that, even if they have a basis in a targetable HR deficiency, can result in an overestimate of the gravity, and hence exploitability, of the defect [ 38, 39].
Virilio is an impressive commentator on the conditioning power of the mass media and the way in which every shattering event - from natural catastrophes to the Columbia shuttle disaster and the attack on the twin towers - gets world coverage and is put on a loop.
But then, it is difficult to reconcile Kielty's on-screen persona on his Almost Live chat show, and as the co-host of Fame Academy, with the defining, shattering event of his childhood in Ulster, when his father was murdered by loyalist paramilitary gunmen.
Admittedly, this conclusion was not born of any earth shattering event -- no oil spill or species extinction provoked my shift in attitude.
