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Submarine Telegraph Cables
27 January 2005
Atlantic Ocean

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Dr. Staveley said, "The event took about two hours. The waves in some areas may have reached about 30 feet. It was a nice, clear November evening, then at 7:30 the water hit. Because it was dark- not many people saw the water recede from the harbour - a sign that the tsunami was going to hit." Dr. Staveley also stated that the reason that they can be so precise about the timing of the Burin earthquake is due to the usage of submarine cables.
"During those days, most communication was by submarine telegraph cables. The cables connected New York and Boston to Europe. There were about 12 main cables, which curved around the Grand Banks and stretched fro 3,000 miles continuously. The landslide during the earthquake snapped them and told us how big the mudslide was - the cables were very precisely timed to the second. When the cables broke the clock stopped," he explained. "So we know exactly when they broke and we get a good feeling of the speed of the mudslide."