Great Death

The Great Death was the name of an event that afflicted the world of Mars. Before its arrival, Mars was said by Scholastor Heelek to have been a rich and verdant world; yet all its vegetation and even a strange and alien people that had once populated the planet had been wiped out by this curse. The Great Death was said to had laid waste to everything in its path whilst it was heading to the planet Earth. In later years, Ice Warrior archaeologists believed that the Great Death was something that had come from the stars and was not native to their world. (PROSE: GodEngine)

It's possible that this phenomenon was caused by the Fendahl, on its journey from Planet 5 to Earth. (TV: Image of the Fendahl)