The Panama Canal is reducing the maximum number of ships allowed to travel the waterway to 31 per day due to a drought that has cut the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks.

The Panama Canal announced Saturday it will reduce the maximum number of ships travelling the waterway to 31 per day, from 32 in August, due to a drought that has reduced the supply of fresh water needed to operate the locks.

That compares to daily averages of 36 to 38 ships per day under normal operation.

Nine ships per day will be allowed to use the new, bigger NeoPanamax locks and 22 per day will be handled through the older Panamax locks.

  • @SARGEx117@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12•1 year ago

    Easy fix, just dig down that 26 meters!

    All the way across the length of the canal.

    I’m sure a couple dudes with shovels could knock it out in a week.

    Two weeks tops.

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkinEnglish
      7•1 year ago

      So interesting thing

      Digging out the height difference and making it a straight shot canal would have VERY BAD ecological consequences.

      Sea level on the Pacific side is higher than on the Atlantic side, meaning that opening a straight shot canal would cause the Pacific to begin draining into the Atlantic through the canal

      This could have DRASTIC implications for the Caribbean and North Atlantic because, how much Pacific needs to get into the Atlantic before the water tables are balanced‽

      • @overcast5348@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1•1 year ago

        I thought sea levels were the same at the same latitude all around the globe. I feel like I’ve been lying to myself all these years now.

        • @ebc@lemmy.caEnglish
          5•1 year ago

          Also tides are not the same on both sides, even if they were the same average level, the tides definitely wouldn’t be synchronized. This would result in very strong currents in the canal, making it impossible to safely navigate. The most common fix for that type of situation is to put… locks in the canal.

        • @AlotOfReading@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5•1 year ago

          It’s pretty unintuitive because we’re not used to dealing with ocean sized bodies of water in day to day life. Part of the explanation is just that the prevailing winds pile all the water in the Pacific up against the coast, causing higher sea levels on the West Coast. The lower salinity of the Pacific also causes lower water density, which translates to higher sea levels.

    • SpziEnglish
      4•1 year ago

      Easy fix, just dig down that 26 meters!

      All the way across the length of the canal.

      I’m sure a couple dudes with shovels could knock it out in a week.

      Why shovels when you can use plowshares?

      Proposed uses for nuclear explosives under Project Plowshare included widening the Panama Canal, constructing a new sea-level waterway through Nicaragua nicknamed the Pan-Atomic Canal …

      Or maybe we should stop messing with our climate.