Say Goodbye to the Undersea Cable That Made the Global Internet Possible (wired.com)
- Reference: 0180846964
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/23/1723233/say-goodbye-to-the-undersea-cable-that-made-the-global-internet-possible
- Source link: https://www.wired.com/story/say-goodbye-to-the-undersea-cable-that-made-the-global-internet-possible/
Subsea Environmental Services, one of only three companies in the world whose entire business is cable recovery and recycling, began the operation last year using its new diesel-electric vessel, the MV Maasvliet, and had already brought 1,012 kilometers of the cable to the Portuguese port of Leixoes by August.
TAT-8, short for Trans-Atlantic Telephone 8, was built by AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom, and hit full capacity within just 18 months of going live. A fault too expensive to repair took it out of service in 2002. The recovered cable is being shipped to Mertech Marine in South Africa, where it will be broken down into steel, copper, and two types of polyethylene -- all commercially valuable, especially the high-quality copper at a time when the International Energy Agency projects global shortages within a decade.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/say-goodbye-to-the-undersea-cable-that-made-the-global-internet-possible/
How long before nigerian prince used it? (Score:3)
So many bits traveled this cable seeking assistance in resolving a matter.
Unexpected Surprises? (Score:3)
I wonder if they'll find any unexpected cables tapped into the main one during this extraction.
Re: (Score:2)
In the years this cable was active that tech was still being developed.
Anyhow, this project shows us the present value of copper.
Re: Unexpected Surprises? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm was surprised there is any copper in a fibre optic cable. Never really given them much thought before. But to save others googling, they have high voltage power cables and boosters every 100km or so.
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Cables tend to have amps / repeaters every x distance. Those need to get power somehow.
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I had no idea they were recycling fiber optic cables like that! I remember seeing an underseas cable dragged up into the jungle down in Panama when I was working in the Army Jungle School at Fort Sherman. It was at Devil's Beach, where our student companies would regularly take a break, and the big black cable (I can't remember, maybe 3 or 4 inches in diameter?) was just lying there in the jungle. You could see its construction on the end visible there. I always have regretted not bringing a hacksaw the
Glad it's being recycled (Score:2)
Good on them for pulling it out for recycling - but are they doing it because it's better for the environment, required by law, or because they'll make enough money from recycling to be worth it?
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The raw materials are valuable, otherwise it would just remain a part of the bottom of the ocean.
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If they were, meth addicts would have rolled it up and carted it off years ago. Shame it wasn't made using copper.
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Why does the reason matter? If the right thing ends up being done, its rationalization is immaterial
Re: Glad it's being recycled (Score:2)
Maybe knowledge of the motivation that got the right thing done here might be used in the future to ensure the right thing continues to be done?
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My guess to pull the equivalent amount of copper out of the ground and refine it costs more than retrieving the cable stripping it down and remelting the already refined copper. Companies almost NEVER do something if there isn't a profit motive.
Science (Score:3, Interesting)
They should take a scraping as they go, put it in a big jar, and sent it to a few oceanologists.
Sell cross-sections (Score:4, Interesting)
They should sell cross-sections through the cable (about 1/2 to 1 inch thick) mounted and framed as a way for people to "own a piece of global communications history". People would pay upwards of $500-$1000 I bet. They could produce a limited run of them and recycle the rest. It wouldn't even use that much of the material -- the vast majority would still be recycled.
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The Golden Gate Bridge had souvenirs made of sections of the original vertical suspender cables when they were replaced: "Strands of History". I have one.
Undersea cables book (Score:4, Informative)
"The Web Beneath the Waves: The Fragile Cables that Connect our World" is a book that provides insight on the subject, should one wish to learn more about the subject.
We don't have to say goodbye. (Score:2)
It's going to be recycled into products that we'll use. In fact, some of its constituents are "forever chemicals." One sip from a bottle derived from a bit of the cable, and it will be with us for the rest of our lives!
Ever wondered how underwater cables are laid? (Score:5, Informative)
Ever wondered [1]how underwater cables are laid [wired.com]?
Here's [2]a super cool subsea cable article almost as old [wired.com] as the cable in TFA.
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/subsea-internet-cable-ship-boat/
[2] https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/
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Ever wondered how underwater cables are laid?
Nope.
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The story above talks about the first fiber optic cable laid across the Atlantic. Since that's being removed, have there been replacement cables laid on the route? Or were there already redundant cables built in?
On another note, I wonder whether these cables are laid directly across the ocean (regardless of land), or from coast to coast - say from New York to Newfoundland to Prins Christian Sund in Greenland to Reykjavik to Faroe Islands to Shetlands to Aberdeen to London (along Britain's North Sea coas
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> On another note, I wonder whether these cables are laid directly across the ocean (regardless of land), or from coast to coast - say from New York to Newfoundland to Prins Christian Sund in Greenland to Reykjavik to Faroe Islands to Shetlands to Aberdeen to London (along Britain's North Sea coast) to Calais to everywhere else in Europe. The latter, while longer, could provide access to Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands before going on to Britain and then mainland Europe?
Is your question do they lay the cable directly between two points or do they island hop? The cables [1]make direct routes [submarinecablemap.com] as much as possible between two points on the coast. New York to Ireland. New York to France. Newfoundland to Ireland. Newfoundland to UK. Newfoundland to Greenland and Iceland. Iceland to Norway.
[1] https://www.submarinecablemap.com/
Re:Ever wondered how underwater cables are laid? (Score:5, Interesting)
TAT-8 carried [1]280Mbit/s [wikipedia.org] in the days when the equivalent number of telephone circuits was relevant. The [2]Fastnet [aboutamazon.com] cable will deliver 320Tbit/s, so one million times more! I wonder how many newer cables cross TAT-8 and therefore lie on top of it? Dragging TAT-8 up from the sea floor sounds like it could cause some collateral damage. Perhaps they will leave some sections down there to avoid this.
Other links: [3]Submarine cable repair animation [youtube.com], [4]Informative article with annoying graphics [slashdot.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAT-8
[2] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/aws/transatlantic-subsea-cable-us-ireland-fastnet-aws
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJblHOGXKo4
[4] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/02/23/1723233/a
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My guess would be when they lay them they attempt as much as possible to not overlay other cables since there is the possibility one might need to be pulled up for repair
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> I wonder how many newer cables cross TAT-8 and therefore lie on top of it?
I would guess nearly zero in the greater Atlantic (large ocean, etc.). Such overlays would be far more likely to occur at the landing sites, which are often used by multiple cables. I would expect the company will be able to detect interference based on how many tons of force are being used by lifting the cable.
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The most accurate predictor for cable breakage is the number of ships that have been renamed more than 20 times in the past year going in their vicinity. Number of overlays is nothing in comparison.