Scientists have cover what they say is the longest sediment avalanche ever assess in action mechanism , as it flow underwater for two days off the coast of West Africa .
An international team of researchers reports the detection of the formidableturbidity current , muscular underwater avalanche , that took place across January 14 to 16 , 2020 . The massive movement of deposit flowed with speed of up to 8 meters ( 26 metrical unit ) per second .
In a preprint newspaper available onEarth ArXiv(yet to be peer - reviewed ) , the team reports that the current travel for over 1,130 kilometers ( 700 mile ) from the mouth of the Congo river , through the Congo submarine canon , all the way down to a depth of over 4,500 meter ( 2.8 miles ) .
The flow led to the break of two seabed telecommunications cable television , the SAT-3 ( South Atlantic 3 ) and WACs ( West Africa Cable System ) which led to a reduction in data speed between Nigeria and South Africa – which in itself notified people that something was happening on the seabed . Part of the WACs closer to the coast was not affected , but the data point collect bear witness that the current quicken as it nibble up more material .
“ We had a series of oceanographic moorings that were hit by the result , which founder them from their seafloor anchorman so that they popped up to send us an email , ” first writer Professor Peter Talling from Durham University toldBBC News .
“ This thing step by step got quicker and quicker . Because it erodes the seabed as it break down , it peck up Baroness Dudevant and clay , which makes the flow denser and even fast . So , it has this positive feedback where it can ramp up and build up and build up . ”
The cables had not suffer a fracture for 19 years but after the January 2020 event , a 2d turbidity current caused more damaged to the SAT-3 on March 9 , 2020 . There are multiple factors behind the movement of these colossal Italian sandwich avalanches , although one seems to be crucial : major flooding .
December 2019 saw a major flood of the Congo river , something name as a one - in-50 - years event . In Kinshasa , the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the river was at its highest since 1963 , with a discharge of 72 million litre ( 19 million gallons ) .
The flood reach the river estuary on December 30 , 2019 , with the first turbidness current form two calendar week afterward and the second one take shape 10 weeks after , cooccur with particularly potent spring lunar time period . The squad believes that the magnanimous flooding events enhance the hazard of fast turbidness current for not just week but possibly up to several twelvemonth .
Given the grandness of subaquatic cables when it arrive to global telecommunication , translate these currents better will lead to faster treatment in repair them and location name as at - risk of exposure can be quash for succeeding cables .
