This wonderful video-explainer from Vox attempts to showcase how sensitive underwater cables known as ‘fibre-optic cables’ (encased in a layer of petroleum jelly, better known as Vaseline) buried at the bed of the ocean carry 99% of the Internet on their shoulders.

These cables can be as deep as 11,000 feet below the sea level (depending on the depth of the ocean at that point) and are not very well protected. Therefore, they are susceptible to damage, including that caused by shark bites.  After all, Vaseline (amongst other things) can only do so much for lightning-fast cables that transmit an entire world of information.

Paradoxically, cloud storage technology that enables users to store retrievable data on high-capacity servers in order to save physical storage space is also empowered by these underwater cables.