Container ships are just a fraction of total traffic via the canal

Watch a ship pass through the Panama Canal

Many of the world’s cargo ships are built to be as large as possible while still being able to fit through the Panama Canal’s narrowest locks. The size standard even has a name: Panamax (and, since the canal’s expansion in 2016, Neopanamax). To avoid running against the canal walls, locomotives hold the vessels in place as the chambers are filled and emptied.

Drought conditions force fewer ships to sail the Panama Canal daily

In 2023, canal authorities reduced traffic in the canal amid severely dry conditions. These seven infographics from the Woodwell Climate Research Center explain exactly what happened that historically dry October, and how it affected global supply chains.

See the real-time numbers of ships traversing the canal each day

This platform uses satellite data to track chokepoints and trade disruptions along the shipping lanes that crisscross the globe. Search for data from more than 1,600 ports, or run the climate scenario simulator.

The world's maritime traffic in real-time

More than 50,000 ships are sailing the high seas on any given day, representing the highest volume pathway for international trade. This real-time traffic provides a visual impression of the scale of ocean-bound commerce.

Before the Panama Canal, there was the Panama railroad

The first ship to cross the isthmus of Panama went not by sea but by land: The paddlewheel steamship Explorer was taken apart and transported by rail, an effort that generated “more trouble than profit,” according to one account.

The canal carried germs as well as goods

In 1832, North America’s first cholera epidemic spread inland by way of the Erie Canal, carried by immigrants arriving on ships. Fearful towns barred passengers from disembarking, yet cholera, smallpox, and other diseases still traveled the waterway.

One in five 16th century Spanish ships sank while crossing the Atlantic

Despite the incredibly high rate of catastrophic wrecks, during the Age of Exploration Spanish investors continued to fund voyages. Here, economists break down the incentives that led to increased risk, including short travel seasons and the propensity to overload ships.

Watch the craziest ways cartels traffic drugs

The war on drugs has forced cartels to be increasingly creative when it comes to smuggling drugs. As police develop methods to catch smugglers, drug traffickers come up with new ways to get their products from producer to seller to buyer. This cycle...

US Customs and Border Protection traditionally operates at ports of entry and along US borders

CBP manages security at official border crossings and patrols areas between ports of entry to prevent unauthorized crossings. View details of the agency's mission, organizational structure, and approach to managing the United States' physical borders.

Countries tried to curb plastic waste, but the US keeps shipping more

Data show that American exporters continue to ship plastic waste overseas, often to poorer countries, even though most of the world has agreed to not accept it.

The Channel Tunnel consists of an underwater network of over 200 kilometers in length

The passage beneath the English Channel between England and France includes three tunnels, crossover chambers, emergency passages, and air ducts. Burrowing teams in either country consistently checked their coordinates to ensure they would meet within two centimeters of each other.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade brought over 10 million enslaved people to the Americas

During the Atlantic slave trade (1526-1867), about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships; only 10.7 million survived to reach the Americas. Fewer than 400,000 arrived in what became the United States—the rest were taken to the Caribbean or Latin America.

Why have gas prices surged nearly 27% since the Iran war began?

Oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz makes up only about 7% of US crude imports. However, crude oil prices account for 51% of the cost of a gallon of gas in the US. US refiners pay the Brent crude futures price, even for domestic drilling.

Why Amsterdam looks so unique

The Netherlands' capital consists of concentric canals lined with towering, unusually thin row homes, an altogether unique profile in Europe and the world. When it was growing, the city was a key trade hub, and merchants wanted direct access to waterways. Canals were built like roads, and houses were required to be very thin to allow for more homes to line the canals.

Millions of honeybees are hauled yearly across the US to help pollinate farms

As indigenous pollinator populations dwindle, farmers increasingly rely on commercial honeybees, which truckers often transport during cooler periods to prevent die-off from overheating. Pollinating all the almond trees in California requires 85% to 90% of all honeybees available to pollinate in the country.

Atmospheric rivers are the largest freshwater transport mechanism on Earth

Serving as highways that carry the water vapor equivalent of up to 15 times the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, atmospheric rivers are approximately 400 to 600 kilometers (250 to 375 miles) wide and provide 30-50% of the annual precipitation of the US West Coast.

The CCZ is believed to harbor trillions of dollars of valuable minerals and thousands of undiscovered species

Located between Hawaii and Mexico and spanning an area larger than the European Union, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is the world's region with the most contracts awarded to groups seeking to extract valuable metals by collecting polymetallic nodules. Conservative estimates suggest that 21.1 billion tons of polymetallic nodules exist in this abyssal plain, but about 90% of the species in the area are unknown to scientists.

One Chinese businessman controls 70% of the fireworks entering the US

A warehouse explosion in 2008 forced all pyrotechnic shipments to travel through the Shanghai port under three special permits Ding Yan Zhong was given. Since then, he has established a near-monopoly over the global fireworks distribution chain, with logistics and shipping hubs in China and California. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Canada is the largest foreign buyer of California wine

Tariffs have impacted the wine industry in Canada significantly, given that California winemakers are responsible of 80% of the country's wine supply.

Civilian 'little ships' saved Dunkirk: over 700 civilian boats joined the evacuation

Between May  26 and June 4, 1940, Operation Dynamo evacuated roughly 338,000 Allied soldiers from Dunkirk, France. Crucially, over 700 civilian “little ships”—yachts, fishing boats, pleasure craft—ferried troops from the shallow beaches to larger vessels, embodying a national rescue effort and preserving the core of Britain’s army for the war ahead.

Transit is funded through a three-tier system, and the federal government is the smallest piece

In 2019, the federal government covered about one-sixth of the $79B spent on public transit. States and localities make up the rest. About 85% of all transit trips are taken by bus or heavy rail, and nearly 4 in 10 US transit trips occur in the New York City metro area.

Hikers can walk through Maya routes on Mexico’s first long-distance trail

The Camino del Mayab is a 68-mile trail west of Cancún that follows ancient Maya paths and modern railways. Built in collaboration with local Maya communities, it promotes Indigenous culture, preserves heritage, and supports community-based tourism along the route.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Modular data centers can be transported on a truck for rapid deployment

Bypassing the complications involved in building larger facilities over the course of several years, such as construction costs and permits, these pre-fabricated, self-contained pods, roughly the size of shipping containers, can carry thousands of graphics processing units for small- and medium-scale AI-related tasks.

The aqueducts and cisterns of Constantinople

The system of aqueducts that supplied Byzantine Constantinople with water had more than 500 kilometers of channels. These channels fed hundreds of cisterns. The largest were open pools (one, now drained, houses an entire modern shopping center); but the most impressive were vast covered chambers like the Basilica Cistern, still a highlight of any visit to Istanbul.

Over-the-counter markets are used to bypass traditional exchanges while trading

Commodities are regularly traded via OTC markets so that buyers and sellers can bypass central exchanges and negotiate terms more directly. Before the advent of formal exchanges, most assets were traded OTC.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.