system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What kind of damage would a collapsing space elevator do to earth?

In a few anime a falling space elevator has a potential to destroy the planet but what kind of damage would it really do if the elevator was 60,000 miles high?
gpt
A space elevator consists of three parts: the terminus up at geosynchronous orbit (or a little higher), the car that moves up and down, and the cable.

The terminus wouldn't fall. It's essentially just like a satellite that orbits freely. 

The car that moves up and down would most likely mostly disintegrate on entering the atmosphere, in much the same way that the Space Shuttle Columbia did. In terms of effect, you can probably compare it to the meteorite that landed in Russia a while back.

I think the largest risk is going to be from supersonic whiplash from the cable, which would be under tension. How that behaves depends on where it breaks.