A SERIES OF UNDERWATER TUBES
A GIF Illustrating The Rise Of The Internet
The internet, try as it might, can't jump across oceans. The information superhighway relies on massive underwater cables that transmit huge amounts of data.
Tracking the expansion of those cables, then, is an interesting way to look at the the expansion of the internet around the world since 1988. Notable, for instance, is how many cables connected the US to Europe and East Asia before sub-Saharan Africa got cabled. Take a look:
The GIF is based on this interactive map of the submarine cables.