CHAPTER GEOGRAPHY APPLICATION: PLACE 18 Geography …

1 34 Unit 5, CHAPTER 18 NameDateCHAPTER18 GEOGRAPHY APPLICATION: PLACEG eography of the panama CanalDirections: Read the paragraphs below and study the map carefully. Then answer the questions that 4 The panama canal is essential to the UnitedStates. About 12,000 ships a year pass throughthe canal , 70 percent of them going to or from ship bound from New York to San Francisco,for example, enters the canal from the CaribbeanSea. The ship remains at sea level for the first fewmiles. Then it comes to a steplike series of threechambers called locks the Gatun Locks. Each fillswith water after the vessel enters, raising it about28 feet. The three locks lift the ship to the level ofGatun Lake, formed by Gatun Dam. (It takes 26million gallons of water from Gatun Lake to filleach lock. The lake does not run dry, however,because the region receives substantial rainfall andbecause Gatun Lake has backup water stored inMadden Lake.)

2 The ship crosses Gatun Lake and goes throughthe Gaillard Cut, a narrow passage cut throughhills. Then the ship is taken into the Pedro MiguelLocks and is lowered about 31 feet to MirafloresLake. At the other side of the lake, the ship entersthe two Miraflores Locks. As the water is releasedfor each, the ship is lowered an additional 27 sea level again, the ship passes to the Bay ofPanama just a few miles away. The eight-hour pas-sage through the panama canal has saved nearly8,000 miles of CanalPACIFICOCEANATLANTICOCEANBay of PanamaCaribbean SeaMEXICOSOUTHAMERICAG atunDamGatunLocksMaddenDamMirafloresLock sContinental DivideGaillard CutContinental DividePedro Miguel LocksCol nPanama CityBalboaCrist bal0010 Miles10 KilometersCaribbean SeaChagres RiverGatun LakeMaddenLakeMirafloresLakeBay of PanamaNChagresRiverThrough the panama canal , Atlantic to PacificCanalLockDamBridge McDougal Littell Inc.

3 All rights 12/7/01 9:47 AM Page 34 America Claims an Empire35 McDougal Littell Inc. All rights Text and Visuals1. Use a ruler and the map s scale to find the approximate length of the panama canal . _____About how far does a ship travel at sea level when passing through the canal ? _____2. How many locks does the canal have? _____3. About how many feet above sea level is Gatun Lake? _____4. Gatun Lake is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world. Which river was dammed to create it? _____5. What topographic obstacle made the Gaillard Cut necessary? _____6. It has been noted ironically that although the Atlantic Ocean is east of thePacific Ocean, a ship passing from the Atlantic to the Pacific travels from west toeast through the panama canal . Why is this so? _____About how many miles east of the Atlantic end of the canal is the Pacific end? _____7.

4 When the canal was opened in 1914, most of its cargo and passenger traffic wasbound from one coast to the other. Today, use of the canal is only theeighth most common way of moving goods and people from coast to are some of the alternatives that have replaced this ocean route? _____Name GEOGRAPHY of the panama Canalcontinuedasan-0518ir 12/7/01 9:47 AM Page 35