NDA (I & II) 2020 General Ability Test · Question 101 of 148

Correct — B, Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. The Panama Canal cuts across the narrow Isthmus of Panama in Central America, joining the Caribbean Sea (part of the Atlantic Ocean) on the north with the Pacific Ocean on the south. Opened in 1914, it lets ships pass between the two oceans through a system of locks, saving the long voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.

• (a)Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea — That describes the Suez Canal in Egypt (opened 1869), a sea-level canal with no locks — a different canal on a different continent.
• (c)Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean — The Panama Canal does not touch the Indian Ocean; it links the Atlantic (via the Caribbean) with the Pacific.
• (d)Adriatic Sea and Black Sea — These are seas of south-east Europe with no canal joining them across Panama; the pairing is invented.

The Panama Canal is an artificial waterway about 82 km long across the Isthmus of Panama. Because Panama lies where the Americas narrow to a thin land bridge, the canal offers the shortest ship route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Unlike the sea-level Suez Canal, it uses locks (Gatun, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores) to lift vessels over the central highland and Gatun Lake.

Watch the Suez trap. Suez (1869) links the Mediterranean and Red seas; Panama (1914) links the Atlantic and Pacific. Both shorten world shipping routes, but on different continents and in different ways (Suez has no locks; Panama does).

• The Panama Canal opened in 1914 across the Isthmus of Panama in Central America.
• It joins the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean.
• It uses locks and Gatun Lake, unlike the lock-free, sea-level Suez Canal.
• The United States built and ran it; full control passed to Panama on 31 December 1999.

• Swapping Panama (Atlantic-Pacific) with Suez (Mediterranean-Red Sea).
• Assuming the canal touches the Indian Ocean — it does not.

Asked as 'the Panama/Suez Canal links which two water bodies', or by matching a canal to the oceans or seas it joins.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Suez Canal, opened in 1869, provides a shipping link between the

  • (a)Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
  • (b)Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea
  • (c)Black Sea and Caspian Sea
  • (d)Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal

  Answer(b) Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea — across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic Ocean with the

  • (a)Indian Ocean
  • (b)Arctic Ocean
  • (c)Pacific Ocean
  • (d)Southern Ocean

  Answer(c) Pacific Ocean — across the Isthmus of Panama.