maelstrom

1. (figuratively) A chaotic or turbulent situation.Examples: "It was of Jean Paul's doing: some single billow in that vast World-Mahlstrom of Humour, with its heaven-kissing coruscations, which is now, alas, all congealed in the frost of death!"; "He escaped at last, dizzy from the maelstrom of conflicting emotions that had caught and whirled him."; "The terminal station, Richmond, is managed by South West Trains, heirs to the London & South Western Railway, and here the District fades into a railway maelstrom, since Richmond is not only on the Waterloo-Reading line but is also the westerly terminus of the London Overground."Synonyms: pandemoniumfiguratively