Without these submarine cables that cross the world's oceans, social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram probably wouldn't exist. Hands down, these cables are the Internet's largest and most important link.
One of the first persons to propose using a submarine cable to transmit data was Samuel Morse in the 1840s. The inventor of the Morse code, he submerged an insulated wire in the water of New York Harbor and telegraphed through it.
The first trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1860 and landed in Ireland. In 1902, the first trans-Pacific cable was completed, which linked the U.S. mainland to Hawaii. These first submarine cables weren't capable of transmitting very much information. Since these cables had no repeaters or amplifiers, extremely high voltages were required to get the data across, which produced noisy links.
Today, these cables utilize fiber optics, which can span distances of more than 8,000 miles and carry terabits of data at nearly the speed of light across the most of the earth. These modern fiber optic cables can transmit the whole of Wikipedia in one second!
These cables are typically less than three inches in diameter and weigh around 7 pounds per foot. Since these cables have to endure harsh conditions, many are buried in the ocean floor by an ocean-going plough that travels over the sea floor. Depending on the conditions, these modern cable-laying ships can deploy nearly 100 miles of cable per day. … Wildfires continue to burn throughout California. PG&E is serious about working with Cal Fire and other state and local agencies to do our part to reduce that risk — including helping educate our customers about fire safety, operating our own equipment responsibly and being prepared to respond. To learn more about how PG&E is helping to combat these fires, please visit www.pgecurrents.com/
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