Gatun Lake
| Use attributes for filter ! | |
| Surface elevation | 26 |
|---|---|
| Area | 425 |
| Inflow source | Chagres River |
| Fish | Oscar |
| Nile tilapia | |
| Jaguar cichlid | |
| Cichla monoculus | |
| Cichla pleiozona | |
| Islands | Barro Colorado Island |
| Isla Gatun, Panama | |
| Isla Tres Perros | |
| Isla Falta Calzado | |
| Did you know | The impassable rain-forest around Gatun Lake has been the best defense of the Panama Canal. |
| Date of Reg. | |
| Date of Upd. | |
| ID | 1166832 |
About Gatun Lake
Gatun Lake is a large artificial lake to the south of Colón, Panama. It forms a major part of the Panama Canal, carrying ships for 33 km of their transit across the Isthmus of Panama. The lake was created between 1907 and 1913 by the building of the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River.
El Nino drought: Panama Canal cuts ship numbers further
By Peter HoskinsBBC News
The Panama Canal will make more cuts to The Number of ships using the waterway due to the worst drought in over 70 years, authorities say.
The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) says it has been forced to make the decision due to the driest October since records began in 1950.
The has contributed to the severe drought, the ACP says.
It is expected to increase the cost of shipping goods around The World .
A naturally occurring El Nino climate pattern associated with warmer-than-usual water in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean is contributing to Panama's drought.
Water levels in Gatun Lake , the rainfall-fed reservoir that is the Main Source of water used in The Canal 's lock system, have " continued to decline to unprecedented levels for This Time of year, " according to the ACP.
Starting from 3 November, booking slots will be cut to 25 per day from an already reduced 31 per day,
That number will be further reduced over The Next three months to 18 slots per day from the start of February 2024.
In recent months, the ACP has imposed various passage restrictions to conserve scarce water.
The measures already in place have caused long delays, with tens of ships having to wait to use The Canal .
Those delays have " pushed shipping rates higher elsewhere by decreasing the globally available number of vessels, " according to an analyst note from the US Energy Information Administration.
Delays for some gas transporters were at record highs in Panama, pushing up the cost of shipping liquefied gas from the US, it added.
Related TopicsSource of news: bbc.com
