Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Submarine Cable Maps


Every year Telegeography creates an updated undersea cable map of the world. The 2015 Submarine Cable map was inspired by medieval and renaissance cartography and features not only a vintage map style but sea monsters, map border illustrations and images showing some of the common causes of cable faults.

The map shows 299 submarine cable systems across the globe, that are active or are under construction. The border illustrations provide information on the capacity data of some of the major cable routes. Other inset illustrations provide information on how submarine cables are laid.

A number of  images on the map explain some of the common causes of cable faults. Some fictional causes of cable faults are also included in the map in the form of mythical sea monsters. The text provided with each monster includes a reference to which historical map it first appeared on.


Esri has used Telegeography's cable data to create their own 3d map of Submarine Cables. This 3d globe of submarine cables allows you to search the world's undersea cables by location and by date of construction.

If you select a cable on the map you can find out more about the cable's owner, date of construction and the cable's length,


Messages in the Deep is another fascinating undersea cable map which allows you to explore the history of the growth of the undersea fibre optic network around the world since 1989.

The map allows you to view the undersea cable network for any year, or you can animate the map to view how this global network has grown since 1989. The map also allows you to refine the cables shown by cable owner.

You can click on any of the cables displayed on the map to view it's length, it's first year of operation and the cable's owners.

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