<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/09/what-lies-beneath-the-growing-threat-to-the-hidden-network-of-cables-that-power-the-internet>
"It was the opening days of 2022, in the aftermath of a huge volcanic eruption,
when Tonga went dark. The underwater eruption – 1,000 times more powerful than
the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima – sent tsunami waves across Tonga’s
nearby archipelago and blanketed the island’s white coral sands in ash.
The strength of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai eruption severed internet
connectivity with Tonga, causing a communication blackout at just the moment
that a crisis was unfolding.
When the undersea cable that provides the country’s internet was restored weeks
later, the scale of the disruption was clear. The lack of connectivity had
hampered recovery efforts, while at the same time devastating businesses and
local finances, many of which depend on remittances from abroad.
The disaster exposed the extreme vulnerabilities of the infrastructure that
underpins the workings of the internet.
Contemporary life is really inseparable from an operational internet, says
Nicole Starosielski, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and
the author of
The Undersea Network.
In that way, it’s much like drinking water – a utility that underpins our very
existence. And like water, very few people understand what it takes for it to
travel from a distant reservoir to our kitchen taps.
Modern consumers have come to imagine the internet as something unseen in the
atmosphere – an invisible “cloud” just above our heads, raining data down upon
us. Because our devices aren’t tethered to any cables, many of us believe the
whole thing is wireless, says Starosielski, but the reality is far more
extraordinary.
Almost all internet traffic – including Zoom calls, movie streams, emails and
social media feeds – reach us via high speed fibre optics laid on the ocean
floor. These are the veins of the modern world, stretching almost 1.5 million
km under the sea, connecting countries via physical cables which funnel the
internet through them."
Via Girl of the Sea.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
