Subsea cables underpin global communications, carrying more than 99 % of all digital data traffic worldwide. While this >1.6 million km-long network has been designed to be highly resilient, subsea cables can be damaged by a number of natural hazards that occur across all water depths in the ocean. Here, we explore the diversity of natural hazards that can damage cables, considering a broad frequency-magnitude spectrum. This paper is the first global perspective of actual and potential hazards affecting cables. As such, it is an accessible overview of the regional variability and complexity of hazards. Relatively rare and extreme events, such as super typhoons, submarine landslides or associated turbidity currents and volcanic eruptions, can synchronously cause widespread damage to multiple systems, in some cases disconnecting entire countries or dramatically slowing data traffic. We show that damage is rarely linked to an initial event, instead arising from cascades of processes that can lag by years. Not all instances of cable damage that relate to natural processes are linked to extreme events. We show that much smaller intensity meteorological and oceanographic processes such as storms and continuous seafloor currents that have been overlooked by previous studies can also damage subsea cables. New analysis of past instances of cable damage reveals that a significant proportion of previously unattributed faults may relate to such low-level but sustained impacts. It is these hazards that are most likely to change in frequency and magnitude in response to ongoing climate change but are also more predictable. Through mapping of exposure to these different hazards, we identify geographically-constrained hazard hotspots and identify various mitigation measures to enhance the evidence base and further strengthen subsea telecommunications network resilience.

中文翻译：

---

自然灾害对海底电信网络影响的多样性、频率和严重性


海底电缆支撑着全球通信，承载着全球 99% 以上的数字数据流量。虽然这个 >160 万公里长的网络被设计为具有高度弹性，但海底电缆可能会因海洋所有水深处发生的许多自然灾害而损坏。在这里，我们探讨了可能损坏电缆的各种自然灾害，考虑了广泛的频率-幅度频谱。本文首次从全球角度看待影响电缆的实际和潜在危害。因此，它是对灾害的区域可变性和复杂性的易于理解的概述。相对罕见的极端事件，例如超强台风、海底滑坡或相关的浊流和火山喷发，可能会同时对多个系统造成大面积破坏，在某些情况下，会断开整个国家/地区的连接或显着减慢数据流量。我们表明，损害很少与初始事件有关，而是由可能滞后数年的一连串过程引起的。并非所有与自然过程相关的电缆损坏实例都与极端事件有关。我们表明，以前的研究忽略了强度小得多的气象和海洋过程，例如风暴和连续的海底洋流，也会损坏海底电缆。对过去电缆损坏实例的新分析表明，以前未归因的故障中有很大一部分可能与此类低级别但持续的影响有关。正是这些灾害最有可能随着持续的气候变化而改变频率和幅度，但也更容易预测。 通过绘制这些不同危害的暴露情况，我们确定了受地理限制的危害热点，并确定了各种缓解措施，以增强证据基础并进一步加强海底电信网络的弹性。