Soo Canal
Also called: Sault Ste Marie Canal, Soo Locks · Topic: World Transport and Communication · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 7 "Transport and Communication"
Meaning
The Soo Canal is a canal with locks on the St Marys River at Sault Ste Marie. A lock is a closed section of a canal where the water level is raised or lowered to lift or drop ships. The canal joins Lake Superior with Lake Huron and takes ships around the rapids on the river. It is part of the Great Lakes waterway, which lets ships travel deep into North America.
Example
Ships carry iron ore and grain from ports on Lake Superior. They pass through the Soo locks into Lake Huron and go on to the steel and industrial cities on the lower lakes.
Don't confuse with
- Welland Canal: it joins Lake Erie and Lake Ontario and takes ships around Niagara Falls. The Soo joins Superior and Huron.
- Suez Canal: a sea-level canal in Egypt joining the Mediterranean with the Red Sea. The names sound alike in exam options.
Related concepts
- Rhine waterway
- Ruhr industrial region
- Danube waterway
- Volga waterway
- Volga-Don Canal
- Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway
- Welland Canal
- Mississippi-Ohio waterway