Submarine Internet Cables
The hidden backbone of the internet — 500+ submarine cables carrying 95% of international data traffic, visualised on a 3D globe using TeleGeography's public GeoJSON dataset and globe.gl's native geodesic path rendering.
500+
Active submarine cables worldwide
1.3M km
Total combined cable length
~95%
Of international internet traffic
1,200+
Cable landing stations
25 years
Average cable design life
$500M+
Typical transoceanic cable cost
Data Pipeline
TeleGeography Public GeoJSON
TeleGeography maintains the authoritative public database of submarine cable infrastructure. Their GitHub-hosted GeoJSON files contain cable geometry (MultiLineString), ownership, length, ready-for-service (RFS) year, and landing point coordinates. The data is freely available with no API key.
Server-Side Proxy & Flattening
A Next.js Route Handler fetches both GeoJSON files in parallel, decomposes MultiLineString cables into individual LineString segments, thins coordinate arrays by keeping every 3rd point (preserving cable route shape while reducing payload), and extracts key metadata per segment.
Ocean Region Classification
Each segment is classified into a named ocean region (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, Other) based on the average longitude of its coordinates. Pacific cables that cross the anti-meridian are detected by their large longitude spread (> 90°).
Globe.gl Path + Point Rendering
Cable segments are rendered using globe.gl's built-in `pathsData` API which draws geodesic paths on the globe surface — no Three.js particle system needed. Each path's colour comes from TeleGeography's own cable colour palette. Landing stations use globe.gl's `pointsData` as flat white dots. Click handlers are provided by globe.gl natively.
⚠️ Cable Vulnerability
Despite their critical importance, submarine cables are surprisingly fragile. The most common causes of damage are ship anchors and fishing trawls in shallow coastal zones, followed by submarine landslides and earthquakes in deeper water. Notable incidents include the 2022 Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption severing Tonga's only internet cable, and the 2006 Taiwan earthquake damaging multiple cables across Southeast Asia.
Cable repair ships — of which there are fewer than 60 worldwide — can take weeks to locate a fault at depths of up to 8,000 metres and complete repairs, leaving affected regions with severely degraded internet access.