Many are interested in the question: where is the Panama Canal located? It is located in Central America, separating the North American continent from the South American. It is an artificial water channel connecting the Gulf of Panama in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic. The coordinates of the Panama Canal correspond to the subequatorial zone of the Western Hemisphere.
Construction Features
The Panama Canal connects 2 oceans - the Pacific and Atlantic - with a narrow water strip. It is located in the tropical zone of the northern hemisphere. Geographic coordinates of the Panama Canal: 9 ° 12´ north latitude and 79 ° 77´ west longitude. August 14, 2014 marked the centenary of the official launch of this gigantic technical facility.
The length of the Panama Canal is 81.6 km. Of these, 65.2 lie on land, and the remaining kilometers on the bottom of the bays. The Panama Canal is 150 meters wide and locks are 33 meters wide. The water depth in the channel is 12 meters.
Throughput is moderate. This is due to the small width of the Panama Canal. Up to 48 ships can sail on it per day. But any vessel, including tankers, can pass through it. During the construction of ships, the channel width is taken into account, which determines the limit of their width. During the year, approximately 14,000 ships pass through it, carrying a total of 280 million tons of cargo. This is 1/20 of the total value of all ocean traffic. Such a dense stream leads to channel overload by ships.
The price for the passage of the vessel is very high and can reach up to $ 400,000.
The movement time of vessels along the channel is more than four hours with an average value of 9 hours.
The described channel is not one of a kind. The Panama and Suez Canals are quite similar to each other, being exclusively artificial structures.
Geographical features of Panama
A crucial role in the economy of Panama is the service of transit ships. This is an important source of income for this state. As an independent country, Panama was formed in 1903, after being disconnected from Colombia.
Panama is located on the narrowest part of the Central American Isthmus. A narrow mountain range runs along its center, on both sides of which there are lowlands. In the area of the Panama Canal, an extensive decrease is observed, and the maximum height is only 87 meters above sea level.
The climate of Panama is divided into 2 types. In the part that faces the Caribbean Sea, it is humid tropical, with a mild wet season and lack of dry. The amount of precipitation is about 3000 mm per year. From the Pacific side, the amount of precipitation is much less, and the dry season is quite clearly expressed.
Panama Resources
In Panama, large areas are covered with forests. In the north, these are humid evergreen forests, and in the south they are semi-deciduous, with areas of light forests. Due to slash-and-burn farming, there was a risk of shallowing rivers and disruption of the Panama Canal.
Among the minerals, the most important are oil and copper deposits. A major role in the economy is played by fisheries and agriculture.
Channel History
The construction of the Panama Canal was first discussed in the 16th century. Then the construction was abandoned for theological reasons. Only in the 19th century, against the backdrop of the rapid growth of ocean freight flows, did real construction begin. However, the project turned out to be a little consistent with the geographical realities of those places where the construction was carried out. Builders died in thousands from tropical diseases, and the work itself was harder than it should have been on the project, which led to cost overruns already at the initial stage of construction. The results were lawsuits and massive public protests in France, whose workers built the canal.
Among the accused was the creator of the famous Eiffel Tower - A. G. Eiffel. Due to all these setbacks, construction work was stopped in 1889. Shares of the Panama Canal have depreciated.
After 1900, the Americans took up the construction. To do this, they decided to conclude an agreement with Colombia on the transfer of the right to use a strip of land where a canal was to be built. The agreement was signed, but the Colombian parliament did not approve it. Then the United States, through the organization of a separatist movement, separated from Colombia a piece of territory, which became known as the Republic of Panama. After that, an agreement was signed with the authorities of this new republic on the transfer of rights to use this section of the territory.
Before starting to build a canal, the Americans decided to get rid of malaria mosquitoes. For this, an expedition of 1,500 people was sent to Panama, who were engaged in draining the marshes and destroying mosquito larvae with pesticides. As a result, the risk of fever was reduced to a level acceptable by those standards.
Construction was started in 1904 on a new, more realistic project that proved successful. In addition to the canal itself, locks and artificial lakes were created to overcome the height difference. 70 thousand workers were involved and 400 billion dollars were spent, and the time of work lasted 10 years. Almost one in ten workers died during construction.
In 1913, the last isthmus was officially blown up. To do this, a cable 4,000 kilometers long was extended from there to the office of US President Thomas Wilson, where a button was installed. At the other end was 20,000 kg of dynamite. Various dignitaries gathered at the White House ceremony. The opening of the Panama Canal took place a year later. However, various problems interfered with the work of the channel, and only in 1920 did it steadily fulfill its functions.
Since 2000, the Panama Canal became the property of Panama.
Channel Benefits
The channel project has become one of the largest in the history of mankind. Its influence on shipping in the world, and especially in the Western Hemisphere, is very large. This makes it one of the most important objects of geopolitics. Previously, ships had to go around the entire South American continent. After the opening of the canal, the length of the sea route from New York to San Francisco decreased from 22.5 to 9.5 thousand km.
Technical features of the structure
Due to the location of the Isthmus of Panama, the canal is directed from the southeast (Panama Bay of the Pacific Ocean) to the northwest (towards the Caribbean Sea of the Atlantic Ocean). The height of the channel surface reaches 25.9 meters above sea level. Therefore, artificial lakes and floodgates were created to fill it. In total, 2 lakes and 2 groups of locks were created. Another artificial lake, Alajuela, is used as an additional source of water supply.
The channel has two passages designed for the movement of ships in both directions. Only on their own afloat the ships are not able to go through it entirely. For transportation of ships through locks, special electric locomotives using railway tracks are used. They are called mules.
In order to float freely along the canal, the ship must correspond to certain dimensions. The slats are set for the upper values of indicators such as length, height, width and depth of the underwater part of the vessel.
In total, 2 bridges cross the canal. Along it, between the cities of Colon and Panama is the road and rail.
Calculation of payments for the passage of the vessel
The administration of the Panama Canal, which is the state property of the Republic of Panama, collects payments. The amount of the fee is determined in accordance with the established tariffs.
For container ships, payment is based on the volume of the vessel. The unit of volume is TEU, which is equal to the capacity of a regular twenty-foot container. For 1 TEU you need to pay about $ 50.
For other types of vessels, the rate is calculated according to their displacement expressed in tons of water. For one ton it is necessary to pay about three dollars.
For small vessels, the amount of collection is determined by their length. For example, for vessels with a length of less than 15 meters, the amount is $ 500, and for a length of more than 30 m - $ 2,500 (for reference: $ 1 is 57 Russian rubles).
Modern channel upgrade
Recently, work has been actively carried out to increase the channel capacity. This is due to the growth of global trade, in which China plays a decisive role. It was he who initiated the new construction work. The modernization was launched in 2008, and completed in mid-2016. All the work took more than $ 5 billion, but the costs will quickly pay off.
Due to its higher throughput, the channel can now serve supertankers with a capacity of up to 170 thousand tons. The maximum number of vessels able to pass through the Panama Canal for the year increased to 18.8 thousand.
It is symbolic that the first container ship to pass through the reconstructed canal was the Chinese container ship. The expanded capabilities of this facility will allow transporting up to 1 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to China per day.
A feature of modern reconstruction was the deepening of the bottom and the installation of wider locks.
Future plans
A constant increase in trade between countries and an increase in the number of vessels over time will necessitate the construction of additional routes for passage through the isthmus. There are plans to build another canal, but already through the territory of Nicaragua. Such projects appeared in the distant 17th century, but were not implemented. Now the situation is completely different.
So, in 2013, the Nicaraguan authorities approved a project to lay a canal on its territory, which could become an alternative and even a competitor to Panama. Construction costs here will be much higher - as much as $ 40 billion. Despite this, in 2014 this project was approved.
Conclusion
Thus, the Panama Canal is one of the largest hydraulic structures in the history of mankind. The history of the projects of this building dates back several centuries. And although the canal was built by the United States, China is now playing a decisive role in its future fate. In the near future, the construction of another trans-American channel for shipping is possible.