Continental divide - Definition and Overview

This article is about continental divides in general terms. For the Atlantic/Pacific divide, see Continental Divide. Continental Divide is also the title of a 1981 movie starring John Belushi and Blair Brown.

A continental divide is a line of elevated terrain which forms a border between two watersheds such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of the continent. Since the exact border between bodies of water is usually not clearly defined, the continental divide is not always definite for any continent (The International Hydrographic Organization's publication Limits of Oceans and Seas defines exact boundaries of oceans, but it is not universally recognized). Moreover, some rivers empty into deserts or inland seas, and thus do not end up in the oceans.

Examples

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  Continental Divide in the USA
  North America has a clear continental divide, running from northwestern Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. From there it follows the crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental. East of this divide, rainfall drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and west into the Pacific Ocean.
• The Eastern Continental Divide runs down the Appalachian Mountains, running from Georgia to Virginia, dividing the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico. Peachtree Street, the main street of the city of Atlanta, sits atop this divide.
• Another continental divide runs east-west across North America, separating the watershed of the Gulf from that of the Arctic Ocean. The lack of mountains along its route makes it less well-defined.
• In South America, the Continental Divide lies along the Andes.
• Australia has less distinct ocean boundaries around it, and less prominent mountain ranges, making it hard to define a single divide.
• It is similarly difficult to distinguish Europe and Asia's continental divides because of the large number of distinct bodies of water into which their rainfall drains (for example, the Mediterranean Sea and its various lobes, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea with Europe).

Every continent except for Antarctica has a continental divide.

See also

• Watershed

External links

• Continental Divide Trail Alliance (http://www.cdtrail.org/)
• nationalatlas.gov (http://www.nationalatlas.gov/condivm.html)
• Divide.pdf (http://www.state.nd.us/ndgs/Newsletter/NLS03/pdf/Divide.pdf) - Continental Divides in North Dakota and North America by Mark A. Gonzalez. Excellent article on America's other continental divides.
• Map of drainage basins in Canada (http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/national/drainbasins/referencemap_image_view)