4 ms·
On a tangent, I'm curious whether events as the 8.2 earthquake that happened today, could affect these fibers?
by myth_buster 11y ago
On a tangent, I'm curious whether events as the 8.2 earthquake that happened today, could affect these fibers?
- pwenzel 11y agoI wondered about the earthquake as well. Context/maps: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-02/magnitude-8-3-quake-hits-off-indonesia-triggers-tsunami-threat http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-02/magnitude-...
- Phlarp 11y agoThey are designed with this in mind, and certainly hold up better than oil pipelines, which also have to be engineered to withstand earthquakes. I expect it is unlikely for an earthquake itself to sever a cable, but knocking out power / knocking over a building that then destroys the cables landing site is possible, if rare.
- pxeboot 11y agoAn earthquake took out a section of undersea fiber in Alaska recently, so it has definitely happened before: http://www.adn.com/article/20140725/59-earthquake-causes-telecom-outage-southeast-alaska http://www.adn.com/article/20140725/59-earthquake-causes-tel...
- jlgaddis 11y agoI just recently read an article about this... "Around 150 to 200 fiber-optic cable breaks are recorded each year. Between 65% and 75% occur in water depths of < 200 m and result mainly from fishing and shipping activities. In contrast, breaks attributed to geohazards comprise < 10% of the world average. However, seaward of the busy continental shelf and upper continental slope, geohazards account for at least one-third of breaks." -- "Insights into Submarine Geohazards from Breaks in Subsea Telecommunication Cables" PDF: https://www.iscpc.org/documents/?id=1794 https://www.iscpc.org/documents/?id=1794