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Hurricane Helene Will Send Shockwaves Through the Semiconductor Industry

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.

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. Tom Bide, a senior scientist at the British Geological Survey, believes it’s possible the disaster will prove minimally disruptive due to stockpiling and other kinds of contingency work. 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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