How a subsea cable is repaired

If you havent seen it, you owe it to yoiurself to read Mother Earth, Motherboard: https://www.wired.com/1996/12/ffglass/

A Neal Stephenson long read about undersea cables. So good!

I can't believe this article does not mention what I think is the most puzzling part of the repair: the delicate process by which the individual fibers are FUSED TOGETHER in a way that maintains near perfect total internal refraction.

I've been attempting to buy a cross section of one of these cables for a very long time. Anybody got a lead on one?

This was a good read. I'm obsessed with undersea cables. I consider them one of the wonders of the modern world. Wikipedia says 99% of all internet traffic gets delivered via these ocean-spanning wires, just sitting along the sea floor. Almost unbelievable.

Do they maintain the original connection between the fibers or is that not worth the effort and is a swap not a problem?

Also always interesting: https://www.submarinecablemap.com

If you sink a few old ships around in the area you will never need to repair it again each two years. Extra bonus if they are exactly the same ships that you found red-handed damaging the cables.

(2021)

tl;dr: They pull the damaged cable up, weld it to a new section of cable their brought, and then drop the cable with a detour to make room for the extra length.

(This is a really meandering article!)

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