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Continental
Divide
What Is the
Continental Divide?
By Matt Rosenberg
Every continent except
for Antarctica has a continental divide.
Continental divides
separate one drainage basin from another. They are used to define the
direction that an area's rivers flow and drain into the oceans and seas.
The best-known
continental divide is in North America and it runs along the Rocky and Andes mountain ranges.
Most continents have
multiple continental divides and some rivers flow into endorheic basins (inland
bodies of water), such as the Sahara Desert in Africa.
The Continental Divide of
the Americas
The Continental Divide in
the Americas is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
· Rain or
snow that drains on the east side of the Continental Divide flows toward the Atlantic Ocean.
· Precipitation
on the west side drains and flows toward the Pacific Ocean.
The continental divide
runs from northwestern Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New
Mexico.
Then, it follows the
crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental and along the Andes Mountains through
South America.
More Water Flow Divides in the
Americas
To say that any
continent, including North America, has a single continental divide is not
entirely true.
We can continue to divide
the flow of water (called hydrological divides) into these groups:
· East of
the Rocky Mountains and north of the Canada-U.S. border, the rivers flow into
the Arctic Ocean.
· Most
rivers of the central U.S. flow into the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. Indirectly, this is an Atlantic
Ocean drainage.
· Rivers
on the east side of Mexico and Central America also drain into the Gulf of
Mexico.
· Rivers
around the Great Lakes and along the entire east coast of Canada and the U.S.
flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean.
· South
America has a true east-west continental divide. Everything east of the Andes
flows into the Atlantic Ocean and everything west flows into the Pacific.
The Continental Divides of the
Rest of the World
It is easiest to talk
about the continental divides of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia as a whole
because many of the drainage basins span all four continents.
· The
Atlantic Ocean: Along
the entire western coast of Europe and Africa, the rivers flow into the
Atlantic Ocean.
· The
Mediterranean Sea: The
southern part of Europe, most of the country of Turkey, and many rivers in the
northern part of Africa drain into the Mediterranean Sea. Most notably, the Nile River flows north and has a drainage basin that reaches south
past the equator.
· The
Indian Ocean: The
rivers of countries that surround the Indian Ocean flow into it. This includes most of the eastern coast of
Africa, the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia as well as the majority
of Australia.
· The
Pacific Ocean: Along
the eastern coast of Asia and Australia, the rivers flow into the Pacific
Ocean. This includes China and much of Southeast Asia along with all of the
island nations that fill this area of the Pacific.
· The
Arctic Ocean: The
majority of Russian rivers flow into the Arctic Ocean.
· Endorheic
Basins: Asia and Africa are
home to the largest endorheic basins where the rivers empty into deserts, large
lakes, or inland seas.
Matt Rosenberg
Geography Expert
Education
M.A., Geography, California
State University - Northridge
B.A., Geography, University of
California - Davis
Introduction
Award-winning professional
geographer
Author of two books on
geography
Experience
Matt Rosenberg is a former
writer for ThoughtCo. He covered geography for ThoughtCo and About.com for over
20 years. He was an adjunct professor of geography at California State
University, Sacramento, a city planning and GIS intern for local
government, and is a former newspaper columnist.
Rosenberg has been featured on
PBS and NPR, and he has conducted many interviews about geographical topics for
television, radio, and newspapers. He was director of emergency services for
the American Red Cross and served on more than two dozen major disaster relief
operations around the United States. He has traveled widely across North
America and has visited or studied in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle
East. He is a member of the Association of American Geographers and
the National Council for Geographic Education.
Education
Matt Rosenberg holds
a bachelor's degree in geography from the University of California,
Davis and a master's degree in geography from California State University,
Northridge.
Publications and Awards
"The Handy Geography Answer Book" (Barnes & Noble,
2004)
"The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook"
(Three Rivers Press, 2002)
Excellence in Media Award,
National Council for Geographic Education, October 2006
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