Drainage divide
Translation- Drainage divide
-
Main European drainage divides (red lines) separating drainage basins (gray regions)
A drainage divide, water divide, divide or (outside North America) watershed is the line separating neighbouring drainage basins (catchments). In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical peaks and ridges, and may be in the form of a single range of hills or mountains (known as a Dividing range), but in flat country (especially where the ground is marshy) the divide may be invisible – just a more or less notional line on the ground on either side of which falling raindrops will start a journey to different rivers, and even to different sides of a region or continent.
Drainage divides are important geographical, and often also political boundaries. Roads (such as ridgeways) and rail tracks often follow divides to minimise grades (gradients), and to avoid marshes and rivers.
A divide is also known as:
- A watershed, the line between drainage basins – shedding is an old term for splitting or dividing, so it is the line which divides the water (however in North America "watershed" has come to mean the drainage basin itself);
- a water parting;
- a height of land (in Canada).
A valley floor divide is a low drainage divide running across a valley, sometimes created by deposition or stream capture.
Types
Drainage divides can be grouped in three types:
- A divide in which the waters on each side flow to different oceans (example: the Nile and Congo divide, Lunghin Pass triple divide)
- Major drainage divide
- The waters on each side of the divide never meet again, but do flow into the same ocean (example: the divide between the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze)
- Minor drainage divide
- The waters part but eventually join again at a river confluence (example: the Mississippi and Missouri divide)
Drainage divides are a hindrance to river navigation. In pre-industrial times water divides were crossed at portages. Later, canals were built to connect the adjoining drainage basins.
See also
- Watersheds
- List of watershed topics
- European Watershed
- Scottish watershed
- Drainage basin
- Source (river or stream) (headwater)
- Mountain pass
Categories:- Water divides
- Drainage basins
- Geomorphology
- Hydrology
- Rivers
- Water streams
- Freshwater ecology
- Water and the environment
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
drainage divide — водораздел … Англо-русский словарь строительных терминов
drainage divide — • водораздел между дренирующими бассейнами • водораздел поверхностных вод • дренирующий водораздел … Англо-русский геологический словарь
drainage divide — водораздел между дренирующими бассейнами; водораздел речных бассейнов * * * топографический водораздел между двумя системами потоков или рек … Англо-русский словарь нефтегазовой промышленности
drainage divide — водораздел … Англо-русский словарь по экологии
Drainage basins of South Africa — A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain and melting snow or ice drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean. The drainage basin includes both the streams and rivers… … Wikipedia
Drainage basin — Example of a drainage basin. The dashed line is the main water divide of the hydrographic basin A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit… … Wikipedia
drainage basin — the area drained by a river and all its tributaries. Also called catchment area, drainage area. Cf. watershed (def. 2). [1880 85, Amer.] * * * ▪ geology also called Catchment Area, or (in North America) Watershed, … Universalium
Divide — Articles concerning Divide include: In Geography: Drainage divide or watershed, a ridge of land between two drainage basins Continental divide, a water divide between the drainage of two oceans Continental Divide, the North American divide… … Wikipedia
Drainage system (geomorphology) — In geomorphology, a drainage system is the pattern formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin. They are governed by the topography of the land, whether a particular region is dominated by hard or soft rocks, and the… … Wikipedia
Divide, Lane County, Oregon — For other uses, see Divide. Divide Ghost town A train passing by Divide … Wikipedia