In the wake of real life natural disasters come author Clive Cussler’s latest NUMA novel, Polar Shift, plays upon another horrifying what if? scenario–this time man-made. A polar shift is a natural phenomena that has occurred many times over Earth’s history. On the minor scale, it can disorient animals and damage electrical equipment, but at its worst, it can cause earthquakes, eruptions, climactic shifts, and the complete obliteration of Earth’s living matter.

Sixty years ago, a Hungarian genius discovered a way to engineer artificial triggers to create polar shifts, but his work was then thought to be lost. However, a charismatic and lethally charming leader of an anti-globalization terrorist group wants to use this weapon to scare industrialized nations for a short time before reverting it, only, what he doesn’t know is that once put into motion, the polar shift cannot be reversed.

Now it’s up to readers’ favorite duo, Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala of the National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA), to attempt and stop this worldwide distaster before it even starts.