3 ms·
Tides would take care of the filling. The Pacific tidal range is something like +-6.5m, the Atlantic side is <1m, plus whatever offset due to weather and phase
by AlotOfReading 3y ago
Tides would take care of the filling. The Pacific tidal range is something like +-6.5m, the Atlantic side is <1m, plus whatever offset due to weather and phase error in the tidal times due to the earth being a sphere. A system of locks could handle it, that's exactly what the existing canal is after all. It's just more expensive and impractical to construct/maintain the deeper into the continent that canal cuts.
Ecologically, it's mainly about connecting the Atlantic and Pacific hydrologically. They're different temperatures, salinities, turbidities, etc.
- jacquesm 3y agoYes, but whatever the elevation difference if it were done at sea level (presumably the average between the two nominal levels on both sides) there would always be less water to be displaced in the resulting locks and that would in itself be a win, but the amount of material displaced to make the channel may well outweigh that by a considerable margin. I take it the engineers have run the numbers and decided that the current solution is the optimum or very close to it in terms of economics.