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Helene takes ultrapure quartz mines offline, threatens tech supply chains. Spruce Pine, NC contains largest known deposit of high-purity quartz.
Downpours at Spruce Pine, North Carolina, have taken the biggest known deposit of high-purity quartz offline, leaving the global tech supply chain potentially starved of an ingredient vital for making microchips.
Transistors, a type of semiconductor device, are the small electronic switches that perform computation functions in every tech gadget, from smartphones to electric scooters, data centers, and military aircraft. This doomsday scenario is unlikely, but experts are gravely concerned about the impact the flooding could have on the tech industry and the economic ramifications of prolonged supply chain pressures caused by the shutdown of the site. Penn, who has coauthored a forthcoming paper on Spruce Pine alongside independent researcher Fran Baker Kurdi, tells WIRED that the episode is likely to trigger interacting climate impacts.
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