By Publisher Ray Carmen

Imagine waking tomorrow morning to discover that the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans had simply vanished.

No waves. No tides. No blue horizon.

Instead, enormous empty basins would stretch across most of the planet — revealing mountain ranges, trenches, underwater volcanoes, shipwrecks and landscapes that human beings have never seen.

At first, it might appear to be the greatest geographical discovery in history.

Within days, however, humanity would realise that it was witnessing something far more terrifying:

the beginning of the collapse of Planet Earth as we know it.

THE FIRST MINUTES

The immediate scene would be almost unimaginable.

Ships travelling across the world’s oceans would suddenly be stranded on the newly exposed seabed.

Cruise liners, container vessels, fishing fleets and naval ships would sit hundreds or even thousands of metres below today’s coastlines.

Submarines would be left helpless on the ocean floor.

Ports from London and Rotterdam to Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai, New York and Los Angeles would become gateways to nowhere.

Entire coastal economies would instantly lose their connection to the sea.

The world’s maritime transport system — one of the foundations of international commerce — would effectively cease to function.

THE FIRST DAYS

Global trade would be thrown into extraordinary disruption.

Much of the world’s merchandise is carried by sea. Food, energy supplies, vehicles, machinery, raw materials and consumer goods would suddenly have to find alternative routes.

The fishing industry would disappear almost immediately.

Billions of marine animals would perish as their habitat vanished.

Communities that have depended upon fishing for generations would lose both their livelihoods and an important source of food.

But the disappearance of ships, fisheries and international trade would only be the beginning.

The far greater disaster would be taking place above our heads.