So I’m taking an Intro to GIS course and one of my homework exercises involves mapping the original trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
I remembered that this cable (and I assume all others like it) crosses the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which I recall from high school science class is an area of seafloor spreading, and it got me thinking: Are large-scale infrastructure projects such as cables, pipelines, highways, railways, and the like, which may cross areas of plate tectonic movement, designed and built in a way that has to account for the expansion or contraction of that area over time?
I know that geological movements are extremely slow, like less than a centimeter per year, still I’m imagining that over the course of many years it may be enough to matter. Thanks in advance!
In: 6
Long distance pipes and cables have extra slack built into their design to allow for movement, shrinkage and enlargement.
Example: https://www.industrytap.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/industry-2632179_1280.jpg If these pipes were completely straight, they would break if they moved too much since they wouldn’t have slack in them.
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