Author Guy Hallowes reveals how Australia will be wiped out by a 15-metre tsunami in fictional book Icefall

A 15-METRE tsunami is set to wipe out all of Australia, sparking mass panic and chaos. It may be the stuff of fiction but could it really happen?

The face of B-15A iceberg measuring 150km across McMurdo Sound after it broke off the Ros

AUSTRALIA will be wiped out by a 15-metre tsunami which will destroy major ports and coastal cities, leading to millions of deaths and sparking utter devastation.

That’s the gloomy outcome in Sydney-based author Guy Hallowes’ new book Icefall which details the consequences of a huge ice shelf plunging into the sea and causing a major tsunami.

In his book, Hallowes reveals how the Ross Ice Shelf, which is roughly the size of France, breaks away, causing a catastrophic tsunami.

Australia’s coastal towns are destroyed due to their proximity to the sea, there is a complete communication shutdown, the Government ceases to function, as does the police.

The tsunami prediction, made by the British Antarctic Survey, New Zealand Scientists, and the Pentagon, is ignored by most of the world’s population.

The only survivors who took note of the warning are a small enclave who escape into the safety of the NSW Blue Mountains.

Following the tsunami, the survivors emerge to find a country almost unrecognisable to what they remembered.

And while Hallowes admits the work is fictional, he warned his book had a very serious message about Antarctica’s future and its potential demise.

Hallowes told news.com.au that while his thriller was based around an extreme prediction and climate change evidence, he feared a similar catastrophe could happen due to rising temperatures across the globe.

He said the destruction of coral reefs, lower crop yields, heatwaves, floods and droughts are just some of what we are witnessing in Australia already, and climate change deniers needed to sit up and take notice.

“This year the Polar Vortex in North America has produced the coldest and most devastating winter in living memory,” he said. “At the same time California is suffering from a severe drought.”

He also pointed to the UK suffering its biggest droughts in 60 years and Europe’s milder winters as proof climate change was a reality.

Hallowes said while environmental disasters could be cyclic, he couldn’t remember as many bushfires occurring recently in Australia in the whole 30 years he had lived here.

This photo taken in November 2009 shows an iceberg which scientists believe is part of one of the big ones that calved away from the Ross Ice Shelf.

“Climate change is a very real threat, even sea levels rising by a metre has the potential to cause catastrophe to low-lying nations and islands,” he said.

“The advent of bushfires in Australia has doubled between 2000 and 2011 compared to the previous 11 years.

“A tsunami may not happen but I still believe one occurring due to climate change is a credible threat.”

Dr Chris Fogwill, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of NSW Climate Research Centre, said the book made an interesting point but maintained things were far from catastrophic.

For a start, he said the Ross Ice Shelf is already floating in the sea so can’t plunge into it and cause a tsunami.

However, Dr Fogwill did warn the real catastrophe would occur when, and if, the ice from the shelf melted, pouring millions of litres of freshwater into the sea.

Such an event would affect ocean temperatures and lead to massive oceanic changes impacting marine life and other animals across the Antarctic.

“The real message is while Antarctica is remote any changes to this sensitive environment do affect us, the world and global temperatures,” he said.

The Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica poses a bigger danger if it melts according to one expert.

While a tsunami in Australian waters is unlikely, this is what Hallowes predicted would happen.

1. All the ports and most of the oil refineries would be swamped and destroyed due to their proximity to the sea.

2. Food distribution would cease almost immediately resulting in mass starvation and looting of food stores.

3. The Government would cease to function, as would the police.

4. Within about two weeks all the TV stations would cease to function and most radio stations.

5. There would be major panic among the population, with people trying to leave the big cities, causing mayhem on the roads. Most people would have made no plans for such an event so would just panic and head out of town.

6. The event would cut off the world, with no phones or internet.