One of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books deals with precisely this, though on Mars, not Earth... It's the second book I think. Important take home point: Fai

One of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books deals with precisely this, though on Mars, not Earth... It's the second book I think. Important take home point: Failure of a space elevator is just all-round nasty on a global scale... The speeds that the cable attains as it falls, and its likely weight supposedly make for a very big impact along a very long point of impact (or should that be line of impact?)