Im sure people have come across the videos where ships passing through said canal or similar ones go through one or more “water lock”. Water levels between connected water bodies should be the same right? Why do they need to raise or lower the passing ships?
In: Planetary Science
Your question hits on the answer: the reason locks are needed are for canal systems where the water level is **not** the same throughout.
In the case of the Panama Canal, it does end up on the ocean on both sides, but in the middle, the canal itself is not actually at sea level. The canal is about 50 miles long, and in between the lock systems, the water level is actually higher than sea level. There’s a lake in the middle, Gatun Lake, that is about 80 feet higher than sea level, and the water in the canal is at Gatun Lake level. They dammed a river to make this artificial lake rather than having to physically dig out a channel all the way along.
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