Bifurcation lake

Bifurcation lake is a lake that naturally has outflows into two different drainage basins and thus the drainage divide cannot be defined exactly because it is situated in the middle of the lake.

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Examples

Two nearby lakes in Finland are Vesijako (the name Vesijako actually means "drainage divide") and Lummene in the finnish Lakeland that both drain in two directions: into the Kymijoki basin that drains into the Gulf of Finland and into the Kokemäenjoki basin that drains into the Gulf of Bothnia.

Similarly the lakes Isojärvi and Inhottu in the Karvianjoki basin in the Satakunta region in western Finland both have two outlets: from Inhottu the waters flow into the Gulf of Bothnia trough Eteläjoki in Pori and into the lake Isojärvi trough the Pomarkunjoki River; and from the lake Isojärvi the waters flow to the Gulf of bothnia trough the Pohjajoki river in Pori and trough the Merikarvianjoki river in Merikarvia. In the Karvianjoki basin there has formerly been also two other bifurcations which however no longer exist due to human action.

Lake Diefenbaker is a reservoir created by damming South Saskatchewan River and Qu'Appelle River. The lake continues to drain into the two rivers.

The largest lake in the world to drain naturally into two different oceans is also situated in Saskatchewan: Wollaston Lake is the source of Fond du Lac River draining into the Arctic Ocean and of Cochrane River draining into Hudson Bay, part of the Atlantic Ocean.

See also

References

External links

Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bifurcation_lakes Bifurcation lakes] at Wikimedia Commons