Panama Canal

Jeff Gaines snipped-for-privacy@outlook.com wrote

Yep

Yep

Yep

It does. The problem is the lack of water at the high end and the much higher volume of water involved to the much higher volume of massive ships moving thru the canal.

Because the high point of the Panama is in the middle. Even the Thames has trouble with low water in dry periods. Midlands canals with their up and down profile regularly have limits of use in dry periods, they work on the same principle as the Panama, a large lake/store of water at the summit. In Victorian times, the water at the bottom would be pumped back to the store at the top, but that doesnt happen now.

Bigger ships using bigger locks and using a larger amount of water.

The Panama canal is higher in the middle, and much very higher than high tide at the oceans at either end.

Where is the high end of the Panama Canal?

About a decade ago they deepened and widened the canal, so it takes more water to operate the locks.

The most recent El Nino has been longer and stronger than usual bringing a drought.

Sea level on the Pacific side is higher than on the Atlantic side by a whole 8 inches! Loads of other info on wiki:

Make them take their own water. Problem solved.

I'm fairly sure the laws of physics will have something to say about that...

That wasn't what I was asking.

Both ends are low, it is the middle that is high and fed from a lake.

Many thank for all the replies :-)

I didn't realise the high spot was in the middle that explains it!

I like the animation of how locks work, first graphical program I wrote on my BBC micro was to explain that to my daughter.

Didn't they also construct more (pumped) side ponds?

It does.

It is what you asked, (the clue is 'end') but apparently not what you meant to ask :-)

Yes I know (and knew). I was asking Jeff where he thought the high end was. In fact, the lake isn't just tapped for water to run the canal. It splits the canal into two sections and you have a 20 mile section of the lake to cross, in the middle. So the Panama canal is like 2 x River Thames back-to-back, and the lake provides water for both sections. So the canal and the Thames operate the same way; the issue is a shortage of rainfall in the area.

With the "new" supermax locks, they do pump between locks so as to reuse some of the water. The can't do that on the older ones though.

And so ad infinitum?