Definitions for continental divide
con·ti·nen·tal di·vide

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. continental dividenoun

   the watershed of a continent (especially the watershed of North America formed by a series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico)

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. continental dividenoun

   A line of elevated terrain that divides a watershed or a continent, so that water flowing on either side eventually travel to separate bodies of water.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Continental divide

   A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea. Every continent on earth except Antarctica (which has no known significant, definable free-flowing surface rivers) has at least one continental drainage divide; islands, even small ones like Killiniq Island on the Labrador Sea in Canada, may also host part of a continental divide or have their own island-spanning divide. The endpoints of a continental divide may be coastlines of gulfs, seas or oceans, the boundary of an endorheic basin, or another continental divide. One case, the Great Basin Divide, is a closed loop around an endoreic basin. The endpoints where a continental divide meets the coast are not always definite since the exact border between adjacent bodies of water is usually not clearly defined. The International Hydrographic Organization's publication Limits of Oceans and Seas defines exact boundaries of oceans, but it is not universally recognized. Where a continental divide meets an endorheic basin, such as the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming, the continental divide splits and encircles the basin. Where two divides intersect, they form a triple divide, a point where three watersheds meet. Whether a divide is considered a continental divide distinguished from other secondary drainage divides may depend on whether the associated gulfs, seas, or oceans are considered separate. For example, the Gulf of Mexico is considered separate from the Atlantic Ocean, so the Eastern Continental Divide separates their respective watersheds. But the Sea of Cortez is usually not considered separate from the Pacific Ocean, so the divide between the Colorado River watershed which drains to the Sea of Cortez, and Columbia River Watershed which drains to the Pacific Ocean, is not considered to be a continental divide. Together, continental divides demarcate a set of drainage basins or watersheds, each of which drains to a specific ocean, sea or gulf, such as the North American Atlantic seaboard watershed which is demarcated by the Eastern Continental Divide and Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Divide.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. continental divide

   A continental divide is a natural boundary, typically a high mountain range, that separates the river systems or watersheds of a continent, determining the direction in which the rivers flow. Each river system drains into a specific ocean, sea, or inland body of water based on which side of the divide it falls. This also impacts the distribution of aquatic ecosystems and climates across a continent.

Matched Categories

1. • Watershed

How to pronounce continental divide?

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How to say continental divide in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of continental divide in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of continental divide in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of continental divide in a Sentence

1. Daniel Swain:

   Everything from the Rocky Mountain continental divide westward, including Colorado, Utah, Sierra Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico have fire conditions that look really, potentially explosive. The drought is even worse in those places than in Southern California, it looks pretty likely that it will be a severe fire season across most of West Linn.

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=continental divide
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Continental_Divide
3. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Divide
4. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com