> Then, a severe drought in Central America dropped water levels in the Panama Canal, forcing authorities to limit the number of ships passing through that crucial conduit for international trade.
This was surprising to me, as I'd always kind of assumed that the Panama canal would use ocean water for the locks. It turns out that the locks don't pump water at all, they just use gravity, necessitating reservoirs of fresh water.
This was surprising to me, as I'd always kind of assumed that the Panama canal would use ocean water for the locks. It turns out that the locks don't pump water at all, they just use gravity, necessitating reservoirs of fresh water.
See a longer discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37055679