Posted on 11/08/2023 3:44:40 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
Hey, the ships can make passage through the melted Arctic can’t they? There is no ice in the Arctic because of climate change.
Panama Canal uses fresh water; but, there’s not enough for the current volume of traffic. I wonder if they’ve considered pumping in salt water.
Not only is there “lots” of water in the oceans, as the water spills out of the canal (whether into the Pacific or the Gulf), it replenishes the supply. The canal flows down from its apex at Gatun Lake in both directions. There is, however, the problem of pumping the water to the apex of the canal. Possibly also the problem of mixing fresh water and salt water in the various lakes that are part of the canal.
Someone should tell them that salt water works pretty good for floating stuff.
I have a second thought: Capture the fresh water before it’s released into the ocean, and pump it (the fresh water) back up to Lake Gatun.
The locks were designed not to use pumps, they use gravity and water from higher locks.
They new lock on the Pacific side has a capture area for fresh water, but cannot save it all.
I revisited the canal in Dec 2019, wow has traffic increased. My hotel was right on the canal with an overlooking balcony.
As many have commented here about pumps and pumping. There are no pumps used to raise ships in the locks. This is pointed out in every detailed description of the engineering design.
Gatun Lake is higher than both ocean levels. Water raised in the lower locks is or has been up until now— drained out into the oceans. Pumping these quantities of water would be quite expensive in energy to pump.
I believe the sea level canal was to be through Nicaragua but a postage stamp with an erupting Nicaraguan volcano put the qui-eetus on that.
The canal was expanded in 2016 by adding another lane to increase traffic. The lake and freshwater supply was not increased. There is no crisis other than poor engineering.
EC
Not only that the melting ice caps should have provided plenty of sea water.
The good news...there’ll come a time when we won’t even need the locks. Just float right over them east-to-west or west-to-east.
They have capture ponds on the new, larger channel but not on the two original ones. There’s a shipping industry channel on YouTube with videos on this Panama Canal drought. It’s a big deal that is affecting global trade.
Albrook AFB from 1957-1961
Camp Chagres Boy Scout 60-61 (that was AWESOME)
Water CAN BE pumped.
Why would you pump water if there’s plenty of it at the height of Lake Gatun. Hence, no pumps were built back in the day because there was plenty of water.
But, the demand for transit has increased tremendously. Ships loiter waiting transit. These wait times are costly.
To be sure, pumping water - if pumping water is feasible - will probably impact fees for transit. Such are the realities of the world.
Now, let’s ask the question: why are there any deserts in the world? Because the cost of pumping water, and desalinization where necessary, isn’t free.
Did not know that— the capacity of the locks highly dependent on Gatun Lake as the reservoir of elevated water pressure. Whose engineering said that adding another lane would NOT affect that— that is to say in a catastrophic way perhaps being only partly due to reduced tropical rainfall in the current weather patterns.
Truly- a monumental failure of calculation to account for the loss of volume... alone.
Thank you— this was really stupid of whomever did it.
You are correct, 100 years plus later and the capacity cannot meet the expanded design to meet the increase need— all true.
Your post reminded of the water that is in aquifers under the desert in africa, and in Saudi Arabia- being tapped iirc.
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