“Super Moon”: Invisible hand saves global trade

As one of the manners of the global seaborne trade, the Suez Canal plays an important role in the international trading system. Goods going through the canal are diverse, from toilet paper to cars or livestock…. The deactivation of the canal for nearly a week due to the stranded Ever Given vessel caused panic on a global scale.

During 6 days, a 400m long ship blocked the canal, causing more than 400 ships to queue for their turn. The amount of stagnant goods costs many billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the large-capacity dredgers are busy digging through the mud to rescue the ship, creating a rather “desperate” image because they become tiny when lying next to Ever Given.

Obviously, humans are not well prepared for giant accidents in their own lives. Not only on earth, the incident with Ever Given also carries “cosmic” when the astronauts on the ISS International space station also headed for the incident. Russian astronaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who has been on the ISS for the past 10 months, shared images of the location of the crash from space.

The European Space Agency (ESA) also released images from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite to compare maritime trade on the Suez Canal before and during the accident. It is predicted that rescue teams will take several days to be able to rescue the ship even though it is blocking the global maritime lifeblood.

However, we get help from nature. Although it is a canal, the connection between the oceans leaves Suez under the influence of tides like many other waters. The interaction between the earth and the only natural satellite, the moon, has a direct impact on water on Earth.

The storm surge peaks when the earth is aligned with the sun and moon. These are also the two objects with the strongest gravity to the earth. Water is the most strongly reactive to these gravitational forces that we can see with the naked eye.

On the full moon day (March 28 of solar calendar), the high tide is good for the boat to get stranded. After that, the moon will reach the closest point to earth on March 29 (Moon 16). At the closest point, the Moon’s gravitational pull on the earth’s water is highest. That’s all Ever Given and its rescuers need.

According to the New York Times, the Suez Canal has a tidal water level of 2 meters on the evening of March 28, about 46 cm higher than the normal tide thanks to the supermoon. The attempt to rescue the ship entered a decisive moment. Thanks to high tide and high capacity tugboats, the stern was removed from the stuck position followed by the bow.

This was also shared by Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis – the rescue company responsible for the liberation of Ever Given.

“We were greatly supported by the tides. Thanks to nature’s enormous thrust, far beyond the power of two new high-powered tugboats, we were able to get the ship out of position. stuck, “said Mr. Berdowski.

When the tide was high, the stern was pulled out of the stuck position. It formed a 400m long “giant lever” for the rescuers to rescue the bow, which was trapped in clay on one side of the canal. 2,000 tons of Ballast Water was pumped into the back of the ship to lift the bow when the stern was pushed down.

High tide rises at noon but withdraws strongly in the following hours. It creates an invisible hand to push at the top of the ship. Meanwhile, the tugboats continued to pull the stern down the direction of the drawn water, helping to increase the impact force strongly.

Around 3 pm on February 29, the rescue effort was successful. The ship was pulled out in the middle of the canal, ending nearly a catastrophic week of global trade. The arterial sea route, with $ 6 to $ 10 billion worth of goods being transported every day, is cleared.

“We no longer have to use Plan B (absorb more sand) or Plan C (load and unload huge cargo from the ship). We hope plan A will work and it is successful.” , Berdowski shares.

Successful rescue Ever Given is the result of coordination activities smoothly, with calculation combined with the efforts of nature. Without the first supermoon of 2021, it would have been possible to get the giant ship out of position as well, but it would take more days. Along with that are the heavy losses that global trade, already very traumatized by Covid-19, will suffer.

The Suez Canal is not the only route, but it is the shortest route for ships to travel from Asia to Europe and America. Ships can choose another route to bypass the Cape of Good Hope in the southernmost part of Africa. However, it is a long road over 6,000km and quite risky for freight trains.

For now, the impact of the incident on global trade is continued. With the reopening of the canal, many people still have to wait for the desired goods. The only difference is that they no longer have to wait in vain.