It might come as a surprise to some that the actual majority of global communications is done via subsea cables that connect continents - and people - together. This editor remember being dumbfounded at the mere idea of this whilst reading Frank Schätzing's "The Swarm", some 9 years ago. However, the installation of subsea datacables isn't new; in fact, the first ever recorded datacable installation occurred in 1850 - though it was simply used for telegraphy. The times change, though, and nowadays, there are cables that can transmit 160 terabits per second connecting continents. According to Microsoft, that's more than 16 million times faster than the average home internet connection, making it capable of streaming 71 million high-definition videos simultaneously.

One such is the new MAREA cable, laid down across the Atlantic by a Microsoft/Facebook joint operation, which connects Bilbao (northern Spain) to Virginia Beach, in Virginia. The cable is settled more than 17,000 feet (five kilometers for us metric system junkies) below the surface of the ocean and measures more than 4,000 miles (again, 6,400 kilometers) in length. It weighs nearly 10.25 million pounds (around 4,629 tons) and is situated along a route south of existing transatlantic cables, which should ensure more resilient and reliable connections for customers on both sides.Subsea datacables are enormous feats of engineering, and are currently the stewards of worldwide communications. They usually feature designs with seven distinct layers that surround the optical cables, ensuring their protection from the unusually aggressive conditions they're laid in. The new MAREA cable is built through a new "open" design that allows it to evolve with technology, which will likely come in handy for Microsoft's estimate that cross-border internet traffic is expected to increase eightfold by 2025.There are now millions of cables doing heavy-duty data transmitting underneath our seas. Cool trivia: due to the nature for these cables and all the communications that pass through them, it's not uncommon for these to be cut and rerouted in efforts of war, as it happened in the First World War. Tapping the cables is also a non-trivial occurrence, of which there are accounts of.