Previous Year Question

The Telegraphic Plateau or Telegraph Plateau is an old hydrographic term associated with the North Atlantic Ocean. On the basis of 19th-century ocean-depth measurements, a comparatively shallow and apparently level part of the ocean floor was believed to extend between Newfoundland and Ireland.

This region was considered suitable for laying a trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, which gave rise to the name Telegraph Plateau. The first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable was laid across this broad North Atlantic route in 1858.

The region is associated with the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and its route also crosses a part of the Reykjanes Ridge, the northern branch of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge itself is a divergent plate boundary where the North American and Eurasian plates move apart.

Current geographical clarification: “Telegraph Plateau” is no longer used as a formal physiographic term in modern hydrography. More accurate ocean-floor surveys showed that the continuous flat plateau imagined by 19th-century hydrographers was an oversimplification.