PANAMA
CANAL – GEOGRAPHY
News: Red
Sea attacks, Panama Canal drought: How trouble at two shipping choke points
could impact global trade
What's
in the news?
●
The ease of moving goods via the Suez
Canal and the Panama Canal is threatened and this could potentially disrupt
over a third of global trade.
Panama
Canal:
●
It is a constructed waterway that connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
across the Isthmus of Panama.
●
It is one
of the two most strategic artificial waterways in the world, the other
being the Suez Canal.
●
It is approximately 80km long.
Built
by:
●
The canal was built by the United States between 1904 and 1914, and it was
officially opened on August 15, 1914.
●
It is owned
and administered by the Republic of Panama since the oversight of the Canal
was transferred from the United States to Panama in 1999.
●
The Panama Canal consists of a series of
locks that raise and lower the water level to facilitate the passage of ships
through the continental divide.
Go
back to basics:
Isthmus:
●
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land masses which is
bounded by water on two sides.
●
The word has its origins from the Greek
word isthmós which means “neck.”
●
Two notable isthmuses are the Isthmus of
Panama which separates the continents of North America and South America and
the Isthmus of Suez which divides Africa from Asia.