List of unusual drainage systems

The following is a list of unusual drainage systems.

List

Bifurcation rivers (active)

• The Casiquiare canal - natural waterway connecting the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers.
• Tärendö River - in Sweden
• The Chicago River artificially diverts water from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.
• The Echimamish River in Canada connects the Hayes and Nelson Rivers and was much used as a shortcut by voyageurs.
• The Nerodimka (river) flows into the Aegean and Black Seas.
• Parting of the Waters, Wyoming
• Arroyo Partido, Neuquén, Argentina
• Slims River: In the spring of 2016 a melting glacier diverted most of the Slims River from the Bering Sea to the Gulf of Alaska.

Bifurcation rivers (extinct)

• The Chu River in Kyrgyzstan flows east to within a few miles of Lake Issyk-Kul, makes a hairpin turn, and flows west without entering the lake.
• The Manych River east of the Black Sea formerly flowed both east and west.

Bifurcation lakes

• The artificial Gatun Lake in Panama drains into the Atlantic and Pacific.
• Isa Lake in Yellowstone National Park drains to the Atlantic and Pacific.
• At the summit of Simpson Pass in the Canadian Rockies is a small lake, the Committee's Punch Bowl, that drains both east and west.
• Wollaston Lake is a bifurcation lake that drains northwest to the Arctic Ocean and northeast to Hudson Bay.
• Lake Diefenbaker - in Canada
• Inhottu - in Finland
• Isojärvi (Satakunta) - in Finland
• Kivesjärvi - in Finland
• Kuolimo - in Finland
• Lummene - in Finland
• Vehkajärvi - in Finland
• Vesijako - in Finland
• Lake Manapouri in New Zealand has been modified as part of a hydroelectric scheme such that it drains (naturally) south to Foveaux Strait via the Waiau River and (artificially) west via a constructed tunnel to Doubtful Sound

Other unusual systems

• Lake Vostok is a subglacial lake beneath the Antarctic ice cap.
• Bahr Yussef - in Egypt
• The Tonle Sap River flows north in the wet season and south in the dry season

See also

• River bifurcation