Fig. 5: Cumulative length of fiber-optic telecommunications cable installed (red) since start of records used in this study and the inferred rate of disturbance of sedimentary carbon (grey solid line is upper bound, grey dashed line is lower bound estimate).
Note that this refers to the volumes of carbon potentially disturbed but there remains large uncertainty concerning how much of that carbon will be remineralized, and hence lost. Data based on open access records by Telegeography (https://www.submarinecablemap.com/).
