
2012 Submarine Cable Map - imaginator
http://submarine-cable-map-2012.telegeography.com/
======
imaginator
Everything about undersea cabling is fascinating. Here's a video of powering
up an undersea cables's repeaters:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2zDrUz9lgY> (it takes about 30 mins to fully
ramp up an undersea cable).

And of course the obligatory video showing how they load a submarine cable
onto a ship <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1JEuzBkOD8>

~~~
mcguire
" _the obligatory video showing how they load a submarine cable onto a ship_ "

They have $57 million worth of fairleads going into the ship and they're still
using the thing with the two old car tires like an old baseball pitching
machine?

~~~
knowaveragejoe
It's ruggedized cable, designed to live underwater for decades(or centuries at
this point). Besides, there's hundreds of miles of it, what else are you going
to do?

~~~
mcguire
Use something a little more...dignified...than two used car tires?

~~~
delinka
Because dignity: our packets need it.

~~~
eupharis
Yes, yes. Most important.

From here on out, no more undersea cables. I won't have my data associating
with riffraff of this sort. With such undignified origins, who knows what
these cables might be capable of?

Now _underground_ cables are a completely different breed entirely. Its
installation is an altogether more dignified affair.

The soil is carefully tilled by refined gentlemen wielding silver spades and
wearing freshly-pressed tuxedos. They carefully lay the cable down into its
final resting place, whilst a full orchestra plays a requiem ever so softly in
the background.

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dfc
A while back Sean Gorman did some really interesting work mapping critical
infrastructure. If you are interested in this sort of stuff I highly recommend
checking out his work:

[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=sean+gorman+critical+inf...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=sean+gorman+critical+infrastructure&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C33&as_vis=1)

~~~
samstave
Is this the one that was banned/frowned upon by the government because of so
called "terrorists" might use this to attack our freedoms?

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rilie
Obligatory link to Neal Stephenson's Wired article from 1996, in which "the
hacker tourist ventures forth across the wide and wondrous meatspace of three
continents, chronicling the laying of the longest wire on Earth":
<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html>

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vinhboy
Every time this topic comes up. I am just completely awed by the idea that
this is how most of our communication work. It seems so fragile and vulnerable
to sabotage.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
I'm sure there are several ways to re-route communications, so if one/several
links go down, we just use a different route, with added latency of course.

~~~
dmoy
This happened to Armenia, only it wasn't a work crew that cut the cable. It
was some random old Georgian woman digging around:

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-
woman-c...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/georgian-woman-cuts-
web-access)

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robertduncan
Was I the only one shocked by the $250 price tag? Shame -- at $25 I would have
bought it straightaway.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
Ha, I didn't even know it was something I could buy until I saw your comment.
And yes, that does seem to be an exceptionally steep price for an undersea
cable map...

~~~
rdl
You can often get the previous year for free. They are also commonly given as
gifts by sales reps for carriers or data centers.

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jgrahamc
Why are there so many submarine cables going between Alaska and the
continental US? Does the US not trust Canada to have land based cables, or is
it actually better to go under the sea for that link?

~~~
pdubs
Complete guess, but it might be harder to maintain overland cables running
through the Rockies than undersea cables.

~~~
lisper
I think that's a good guess. Alaska contains some pretty gnarly terrain,
including (but not limited to) a fair number of glaciers.

~~~
dredmorbius
As does much of B.C., which you'd have to cross on the land route to Alaska.

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sukuriant
It's really fascinating to see the cables go around Cuba (except for a single
cable), compared to much of the rest of the world where there is a great deal
of redundancy (except where it would be too much work, like a couple of the
more remote islands).

~~~
guard-of-terra
Not so strange considering USA's continued bullying of Cuba despite there
being no reasons to do so for a long time.

~~~
refurb
I would imagine has more to do with the absolute shambles that is the Cuba
economy. When you can't feed your populous, underseas communication cables
seem like a bit of a luxury.

~~~
pvarangot
The last time there was endemic food distribution problems in Cuba (the
"periodo especial") sort of completely ended before the beginning of the 21st
century. It was mostly because Cuba was unable to meet its own demand for oil
during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

You can bash the Cuban economy all you want, but feeding of its population is
not a good place to start. It ranks among the top american countries (that
includes the US and Canada) in the UNs undernourishment rating since 2002. As
of 2006 it has also ranked consistently in the top3/top5 of american countries
in children undernourishment indexes, sometimes above or matching the USA and
Canada.

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grimlck
Wow, Svalbard, with a population of 2932 has not just one but two cables!

~~~
stove
Similarly, I was surprised that Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo Country was
chosen as the west coast's terminal station. Seems a bit random, no? Link:
[http://submarinenetworks.com/stations/north-america/usa-
west...](http://submarinenetworks.com/stations/north-america/usa-west/grover-
beach)

~~~
AndrewO
I'm only a somewhat familiar with the geography there, but IIRC, it's similar
to what's described here:

"Cables almost never land in industrial zones, first because such areas are
heavily traveled and frequently dredged, second because of pure geography.
Industry likes rivers, which bring currents, which are bad for cables. Cities
like flat land. But flat land above the tide line implies a correspondingly
gentle slope below the water, meaning that the cable will pass for a greater
distance through the treacherous shallows. Three to thirty meters is the range
of depth where most of the ocean dynamics are and where cable must be armored.
But in wild places like Porthcurno or Lan Tao Island, rivers are few and
small, and the land bursts almost vertically from the sea. The same geography,
of course, favors pirates and smugglers."

"Wired 4.12: Mother Earth, Motherboard by Neal
Stephenson":<http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass_pr.html> (this
article is old, but great if you're interested in sub cables)

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asolove
Hey guys, congratulations on the release and the cool interface! I worked as
an intern at TG back in 2005 and fondly remember playing around with this data
to see where the connections were.

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htf
When I think of a submarine cable, I think about fiber optics and all the data
that can go through it. But when I see a map of all the submarine cables on
Earth, it reminds me of a nervous system. Unicellular organisms long ago
started cooperating with one another and evolved into multicellular lifeforms.
I get the impression that, as data transmissions increase year after year,
humans are forming some sort of superorganism.

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dysoco
Nice. The cable that goes out from Argentina is 10 minutes from my home (In
foot), in fact: My father helped the engineers who installed it.

~~~
molmalo
Where's that? It looks like they're coming out from Santa Teresita. I used to
go there on vacations with my friends a few years ago (I went there 5 years in
a row!)... but I never heard of the cables.

~~~
dysoco
Yep, Santa Teresita, I live there!

Such a small world.

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grecy
It's very interesting to see the void through the Northwest passage (North of
Canada).

It won't be like that for long:
[http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/thawing-
nor...](http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-03/thawing-northwest-
passage-will-allow-new-fiber-optic-link-between-uk-and-japan)

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yownie
I'm very please to see them listing Atlantic Emerald Express on here in
addition to gregs cable map(<http://www.cablemap.info/>). There's been some
talk of it not getting enough funding and we need more redundant links here in
Iceland.

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KeepTalking
It is very interesting to see how much cabling lies off the horn of Africa and
around the Arabian peninsula. If ever this was a stable region it might have
severed well to these nations.

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brittohalloran
For some reason this makes me think of the matrix. Not the design of the site,
just the "series of tubes" that are now surrounding the planet.

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infinii
Is there a reason most of the cables run in the Southern hemisphere? Nothing
runs across the top of Europe/Russia/Asia.

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fratido
"Sponsored by Telecom Egypt". Now that's what i call ironic!

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drudru11
Where is the fiber in the SF Bay Area?

~~~
dmckeon
Probably at: [http://www.submarinenetworks.com/stations/north-
america/usa-...](http://www.submarinenetworks.com/stations/north-america/usa-
west/manchester)

