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
Yes, but not necessarily in the way you think
Large buildings may have to account for plate tectonics for reasons like Earthquake protection.
In terms of the transatlantic cables you mentioned, yes the spreading sea floor would eventually become a problem, but the cables have adequate slack and they are replaced more frequently that it would be a problem.
Latest Answers