European Watershed

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Main European drainage divides (red lines) separating catchments (gray regions).

The European Watershed is the line which divides the drainage basins of the major rivers of Germany; the Rhine river, which originates in the European Alps and empties into the North Sea via the Netherlands, and the Danube River, which originates in the Black Forest and flows eastward emptying into the Black Sea.

The European Watershed is not a clearly defined divide, however, since the Rhine's level is much lower than the Danube's, and subsurface rivers carry much water from the Danube watershed to the Rhine watershed. Since this enormous amount of underground water erodes much of its surrounding limestone, it is expected that the Danube's upper course will one day disappear entirely in favor of the Rhine, a phenomenon called "stream capture".