Continental divide

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This article is about continental divides in general. For other meanings, see Continental divide (disambiguation).

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. Because 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.

[edit] See also

• Drainage basin

[edit] External links

• nationalatlas.gov
• Continental Divides in North Dakota and North America by Mark A. Gonzalez. Excellent article on America's other continental divides.PDF (123 KiB)
• Map of drainage basins in Canada