This is an incredibly stupid question, but I’d really like to know what the consequences of a project like this would be given the current drought in the lake that feeds the canal.
In: Engineering
It would be a huge and costly undertaking. Possible, sure – no reason it cannot be done. But we can also build a huge railway system that lifts boats out of the Atlantic (or Pacific), hauls them up and over mountains, and deposits them into the Pacific (or Atlantic). And we can do this anywhere there is land between two bodies of water. The reason we don’t do it is the same reason we don’t widen the Panama canal – the costs involved greatly exceed the benefits.
And I’m not sure what you mean by “normalize sea levels” but if you mean why can’t we remove the locks and connect Atlantic to Pacific without using the lock system, you should know that “sea level” on either side of the canal is different. It’s a difference of only about 20 cm on average, but removing the locks would cause the top 20 cm of the Pacific Ocean to try to dump into the Atlantic Ocean (well, not exactly, but you get the idea). The volume and force of water flowing from one ocean to the other would be enormous. The locks (in part) address this issue (and in part literally raise the boats up and over about 26 meters of land).
Latest Answers