The Panama Canal is operating at top capacity, as 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.
History:
It was built by the United States and completed in 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 in 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.
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