What threat do turbidity currents and submarine landslides pose to strategic submarine telecommunications cable infrastructure?

浊流和海底滑坡对战略海底电信电缆基础设施构成什么威胁？

• 批准号: NE/N012798/1
• 负责人: Peter Talling
• 金额: $ 17.05万
• 依托单位: NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2016 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FN012798%2F1
• 关键词: What; threat; do; turbidity; currents

It is not widely known that the global economy relies on uninterrupted usage of a network of telecommunication cables on the seafloor. Yet these submarine cables carry ~99% of all inter-continental digital data traffic worldwide, as they have far greater bandwidth than satellites. Over 9 million SWIFT banks transfers alone were made using these cables in 2004, totally $7.4 trillion of transactions per day between 208 countries. Our dependence on these cables is growing, for example there were 15 million SWIFT bank transactions last year. Submarine cables thus have considerable strategic importance to the UK because this data traffic includes the internet, defence information, financial markets and other services that underpin daily lives. This project is timely because submarine cable breaks are a notable omission from the UK National Risk Register. It focusses on the industry challenge of why exactly, how often, and where are seafloor cables broken by natural causes, primarily subsea landslides and sediment flows (turbidity currents). These slides and flows can be very destructive. A flow in 1929 travelled at 19 ms-1 and broke 11 cables in the NE Atlantic, running out for ~800 km to the deep sea. A repeat event would break far more cables today. It is difficult to mitigate against multiple breaks from such flows/slides because data traffic cannot be re-routed along adjacent cables. This contrasts with trawling (or other human activities) that break a single cable. This study is in conjunction with Global Marine and the International Cable Protection Committee. The ICPC is the global umbrella body for the submarine cable sector, and hosts Talling's Royal Society Industry Fellowship. This will be the first study to statistically analyse a global database of cable breaks and causes. It will use novel field and laboratory experiments to show how cables abrade or break.The main project impacts are: (1) We will provide our industry partners (ICPC, individual cable companies) with the first global statistical analysis of the frequency and causes (earthquake, typhoons) of cable breaks. (2) We will map geographic "pinch points" in the global seafloor network that are most at risk from specific hazards; thus helping our partners to design cable routes. These results will help to assess where future climate change is most likely to impact upon cable routes. (3) Laboratory experiments and a novel full-scale field experiment will help our industry partners to understand exactly how cables are broken by submarine flows (and why they sometimes fail to break). Results will be presented at workshops with individual cable companies, and at the ICPC's plenary meeting. Such meetings will provide a global forum for discussion of future strategies for reducing cable breaks. (4) A briefing document will be delivered to the UK Natural Hazards Partnership and Cabinet Office that sets out the basis for whether submarine cable breaks should be included in the UK National Risk Register. This project has wide relevance for multiple geographic and geologic settings and the global subsea communications industry. Other type of expensive and strategically important seafloor infrastructure are also susceptible to impacts by submarine flows/slides, including export pipelines and in-field flowline for oil and gas, and umbilicals that transfer chemicals, power and communications. This project's findings will help to assess the risk posed to these other types of subsea infrastructure by submarine flows/slides. Our project partners include those interested in risks to seafloor pipeline used to carry treated water (Carroll at ScottishWater), and oil and gas networks worldwide (Jobe, Sylvester, Armitage). Submarine flows deposit layers of sand that now form many valuable oil and gas reservoirs. We will also communicate insights from our project into these processes to interested partners (e.g. Jobe at Shell, Sylvester at Chevron, Armitage at ConocoPhilips).

全球经济依赖于海底电信电缆网络的不间断使用，这一点并不广为人知。然而，这些海底电缆承载了全球99%的洲际数字数据流量，因为它们的带宽远远超过卫星。2004年，仅SWIFT银行的转账就超过900万笔，每天在208个国家之间进行的交易总额达7.4万亿美元。我们对这些电缆的依赖正在增长，例如去年有1500万笔SWIFT银行交易。因此，海底电缆对英国具有相当大的战略重要性，因为这种数据流量包括互联网、国防信息、金融市场和其他支撑日常生活的服务。该项目是及时的，因为海底电缆断裂是英国国家风险登记册中的一个明显遗漏。它专注于行业挑战，即为什么海底电缆会因自然原因（主要是海底滑坡和沉积物流（浊流））而断裂，频率如何以及在哪里。这些滑动和流动可能是非常具有破坏性的。1929年的一股洋流以19 ms-1的速度传播，在东北大西洋折断了11条电缆，延伸到深海约800公里。如果再发生一次，今天会有更多的电缆断裂。由于数据流量不能沿沿着电缆重新路由，因此难以减轻来自这种流/滑动的多次中断。这与拖网（或其他人类活动）打破一个单一的电缆形成鲜明对比。这项研究是与全球海洋和国际电缆保护委员会。ICPC是海底电缆行业的全球伞式机构，并主办塔林的皇家协会行业奖学金。这将是第一项对全球电缆断裂和原因数据库进行统计分析的研究。它将使用新颖的现场和实验室实验来展示电缆如何磨损或断裂。项目的主要影响是：（1）我们将为我们的行业合作伙伴（ICPC、个别电缆公司）提供第一个关于频率和原因的全球统计分析（地震、台风）电缆断裂。(2)我们将绘制全球海底网络中最容易受到特定危害的地理“夹点”;从而帮助我们的合作伙伴设计电缆路线。这些结果将有助于评估未来气候变化最有可能影响电缆线路的地方。(3)实验室实验和全新的全尺寸现场实验将帮助我们的行业合作伙伴准确了解海底水流是如何破坏电缆的（以及为什么电缆有时会断裂）。结果将在与个别电缆公司的研讨会上以及ICPC全体会议上公布。这些会议将为讨论减少电缆断裂的未来战略提供一个全球论坛。(4)一份简报文件将提交给英国自然灾害伙伴关系和内阁办公室，其中列出了海底电缆断裂是否应列入英国国家风险登记册的依据。该项目与多个地理和地质环境以及全球海底通信行业具有广泛的相关性。其他类型的昂贵和具有战略重要性的海底基础设施也容易受到海底水流/滑坡的影响，包括石油和天然气的出口管道和现场出油管，以及输送化学品、电力和通信的脐带缆。该项目的研究结果将有助于评估海底水流/滑坡对这些其他类型的海底基础设施造成的风险。我们的项目合作伙伴包括那些对用于输送处理水的海底管道的风险感兴趣的人（苏格兰水务公司的卡罗尔），以及世界各地的石油和天然气网络（乔布，西尔维斯特，阿米蒂奇）。海底流存款层的砂，现在形成许多宝贵的石油和天然气储层。我们还将向感兴趣的合作伙伴（例如壳牌的Jobe、雪佛龙的西尔维斯特、康菲的Armitage）传达我们项目对这些流程的见解。

项目成果

A consistent global approach for the morphometric characterization of subaqueous landslides

• DOI: 10.1144/sp477.15
• 发表时间: 2019-01-01
• 期刊: SUBAQUEOUS MASS MOVEMENTS AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES: ASSESSING GEOHAZARDS, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATIONS AND ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE OF SUBAQUEOUS LANDSLIDES
• 作者: Clare, Michael;Chaytor, Jason;Jobe, Zane
• 通讯作者: Jobe, Zane

A General Model for the Helical Structure of Geophysical Flows in Channel Bends

• DOI: 10.1002/2017gl075721
• 发表时间: 2017-12
• 期刊: Geophysical Research Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: M. Azpiroz-Zabala;M. Cartigny;E. Sumner;M. Clare;P. Talling;D. Parsons;C. Cooper

Newly recognized turbidity current structure can explain prolonged flushing of submarine canyons.

• DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700200
• 发表时间: 2017-10
• 期刊: Science advances
• 影响因子: 13.6
• 作者: Azpiroz-Zabala M;Cartigny MJB;Talling PJ;Parsons DR;Sumner EJ;Clare MA;Simmons SM;Cooper C;Pope EL
• 通讯作者: Pope EL

Submarine Mass Movements and their Consequences - 7th International Symposium

潜艇质量运动及其后果 - 第七届国际研讨会

• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-20979-1_14
• 发表时间: 2016
• 作者: Krastel S

Complex and Cascading Triggering of Submarine Landslides and Turbidity Currents at Volcanic Islands Revealed From Integration of High-Resolution Onshore and Offshore Surveys

• DOI: 10.3389/feart.2018.00223
• 发表时间: 2018-09
• 期刊: Frontiers in Earth Science
• 影响因子: 2.9
• 作者: M. Clare;T. Le Bas;D. Price;J. Hunt;D. Sear;M. Cartigny;A. Vellinga;W. Symons;C. Firth;S. Cronin