Panama Canal

Panama Canal Latest News

The Panama Canal is operating at top capacity, as the Iran war triggers more LNG vessel traffic.

About Panama Canal

• It is a manmade waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans across the Isthmus of Panama.
• It is one of the strategic artificial waterways in the world.
• It is owned and administered by Panama, and it is 40 miles long from shoreline to shoreline.
• History
  • It was built by the United States and completed in August 1914,
  • From its opening in 1914 until 1979, the Panama Canal was controlled solely by the United States.
  • In 1979, control of the canal passed to the Panama Canal Commission, a joint agency of the United States and the Republic of Panama, and complete control passed to Panama at noon on December 31, 1999.
• Functioning

• • It uses a system of locks and elevators to take ships from one end to the other.
  • This is needed because the two oceans that the Panama Canal connects do not lie at the same elevation, with the Pacific slightly higher than the Atlantic.
  • For a ship entering the canal through the Atlantic, it needs to gain elevation during its journey to the Pacific.
  • This is achieved using a lock system which lifts and drops vessels to the required sea level at either end of the canal.
  • Basically, locks are either flooded (to gain elevation) or drained (to lose elevation), and act as water elevators.

Source: TH

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