I did just watch a dot go through the Great Lakes, to Chicago, then take to the air and make a bee line straight to the Gulf of Mexico. Probably some weird artifact but made me chuckle.
> Assuming a boat ("Looper") begins in Chicago, either take the Chicago River and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, or the Cal-Sag Channel to the Des Plaines River. The waterway passes Joliet and soon becomes the Illinois River. The Illinois River travels west, through several locks, then southward, through Peoria. At Grafton, Illinois, the Illinois River joins the Mississippi River.
Of course you could start in the some Great Lake or the Erie Canal or anywhere else on the east coast.
Exactly! I really loved the presentation. An interactive map with voice over, and at key moments zooming in, zooming out, coloring etc. Beautiful design. At the same time, not restricting the user. I was immediately glued.
I'm thinking that this can be a good pattern for photography portfolio sites. Voice over from photographer talking about his inspiration, walking through key memories, while letting the user browser around.
This is weirdly beautiful, like the maps of undersea internet cables that frequently come up here as well.
You can clearly see:
1) oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf from the Middle East to China
2) ships waiting to get through the Panama and Suez Canals
3) why people talk about “shipping lanes”. There are some obvious tracks everyone follows, because it’s the cheapest way from A to B (e.g. cape of good hope to straight of malacca).
4) why Singapore got to be such an important global hub.
5) why the houthis and the Somali pirates could cause such havoc
6) nobody goes in the southern ocean! (Why would they? Unless you’re bringing supplies to Antarctica…) a few ships drop down to go around Cape Horn but that’s it.
and so much more. I wish it included more up-to-date data…
My favorite: near the Bering strait you can see the distortion of the map - obviously ships go in straight lines on a sphere but in a curve on the map.
On 3, Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS) will be making things look tidier (and safer) for many of the more organized flows.
In a TSS, you have to drive on the right, and if you're crossing one, your heading (not your track) must be as close to 90 degrees, to minimize your exposure time.
When you're sailing this can be a big pain. The anti-collision rules are altered in a TSS.
> why Singapore got to be such an important global hub.
Without the the location, of course Singapore wouldn't have been able to be so important. But the location isn't everything --- Singapore manages to outperform Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas despite the similar geographic advantages of the Malaysian ports due to much better execution.
Quite a few routes on the heat map that appear to not be following great circle lines (i.e. "straight" lines from china to the west coast) - is that from seasonal currents allowing for more efficient transit with the tradeoff of taking a longer route?
A lot of people have called out some interesting things - one thing that I notice is how the cold water ports shut down in the winter (in the northern hemisphere). It's one of those things I've always heard and known about, but to see it visually conceptualized (and the implications on economy and national interests) is very cool
One of the notable seasonal events here in Minnesota is the last barge of the season before the Army Corps of Engineers closes the locks on the Mississippi River. Then again, each spring, the first barge though is celebrated when the locks open again.
It's not earth-shattering, but it generally makes the news ;-)
This is my favourite of the visualisations that Duncan and I made back in the Kiln days. It's lovely to see people are still enjoying it all these years later.
I used this when I took a sightseeing trip to the Soo Locks, so that I could plan the best time to see the ships. Pretty cool zooming in from a global view to a single ship sitting right in front of me.
This is beautiful. I would love there to be a way to show this on a sphere instead of a flat map so I can find out how things might change in the next century with climate change. I haven't quite understood yet what the new shipping routes will enable us to do. I'm assuming this is partly what the whole Greenland thing is about?
I see ships crossing land. Does that mean that they turned off their transponder or whatever after leaving port and turned it on upon arriving at the destination port? I suppose the software just shows the straight line path at the calculated average speed.
Look at the Eastern US for May 3-4.
This is beautiful but I really wish the land was green or some more obvious color. Zoomed out it is easier to tell but when it zooms in tightly I'm completely lost (maybe I'm just an idiot?).
One of my favorite youtube channels right now is What's Going On With Shipping, hosted by a former merchant mariner. Here's a 101 primer if you are learning too:
I wonder what influences the decision for some ships to take that direct route between Hokkaido and Vancouver through the Aleutian islands while others veer South on no apparent lane. Maybe vessels lacking sophisticated enough navigation equipment to navigate through the islands?
It's interesting to think that as we approach a post-hydrocarbon world, not only will we extract less fossil fuels, we'll ship less too. Ironic to think about how much fuel is used to ship fuel. I know there's been speculation about shipping batteries, but I'd imagine that shipping traffic will decrease at a similar pace to fossil fuel usage after we hit peak. And the IEA estimate for that peak is 2030.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 84.2 ms ] threadI did just watch a dot go through the Great Lakes, to Chicago, then take to the air and make a bee line straight to the Gulf of Mexico. Probably some weird artifact but made me chuckle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Loop
> Assuming a boat ("Looper") begins in Chicago, either take the Chicago River and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, or the Cal-Sag Channel to the Des Plaines River. The waterway passes Joliet and soon becomes the Illinois River. The Illinois River travels west, through several locks, then southward, through Peoria. At Grafton, Illinois, the Illinois River joins the Mississippi River.
Of course you could start in the some Great Lake or the Erie Canal or anywhere else on the east coast.
I'm thinking that this can be a good pattern for photography portfolio sites. Voice over from photographer talking about his inspiration, walking through key memories, while letting the user browser around.
Says WebGL is not supported..?
You can clearly see:
1) oil flowing out of the Persian Gulf from the Middle East to China
2) ships waiting to get through the Panama and Suez Canals
3) why people talk about “shipping lanes”. There are some obvious tracks everyone follows, because it’s the cheapest way from A to B (e.g. cape of good hope to straight of malacca).
4) why Singapore got to be such an important global hub.
5) why the houthis and the Somali pirates could cause such havoc
6) nobody goes in the southern ocean! (Why would they? Unless you’re bringing supplies to Antarctica…) a few ships drop down to go around Cape Horn but that’s it.
and so much more. I wish it included more up-to-date data…
In a TSS, you have to drive on the right, and if you're crossing one, your heading (not your track) must be as close to 90 degrees, to minimize your exposure time. When you're sailing this can be a big pain. The anti-collision rules are altered in a TSS.
Without the the location, of course Singapore wouldn't have been able to be so important. But the location isn't everything --- Singapore manages to outperform Port Klang and Tanjung Pelepas despite the similar geographic advantages of the Malaysian ports due to much better execution.
For the fish — plenty of trawlers in the Southern Ocean.
Thailand is still dreaming of building a canal to create an alternative option.
Until you notice the carbon emissions on the top left.
It's not earth-shattering, but it generally makes the news ;-)
https://www.vesselfinder.com/
Lovely site though. Mesmerising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FR6_6kpG8