All of the world’s internet runs in cables on the ocean floor. How is that possible when we know so little about the oceans and when some parts of the ocean are too deep?
In: Technology
The route for cables is checked before laying them down, in sort of the same way you “call before you dig” when installing a pool at home.
The companies who own the cables want to make sure the path they’re laying them on is relatively clear of issues (massive depth changes, volcanic activity, etc.) and mitigate cable damage with layers of protection. Like a coax cable, the data is sent along a proportionately small ammount of the cable, inside copper, alumninum, kevlar, and stranded steel.
If there is damage you can tell where in the cable it is with a fiber optic cable tester, it times the response and strength of signals to give a distance estimate, then you send out a ship with a crane attachment to patch the cable.
CNN has a nice report that goes into even more detail here: [cnn.com/2019/07/25/asia/internet-undersea-cables-intl-hnk/index.html](https://cnn.com/2019/07/25/asia/internet-undersea-cables-intl-hnk/index.html)
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