Drainage Divide - Types

Types

Drainage divides can be grouped in three types:

  • Continental divide
A divide in which waters on each side flow to different oceans (for example: the Nile and Congo)
  • Major drainage divide
Waters on each side of the divide never meet, but do flow into the same ocean (for example: the divide between the Yellow River basin and the Yangtze)
  • Minor drainage divide
Waters part, but eventually rejoin at a river confluence (for example: the Mississippi and Missouri divides)

Drainage divides hinder river navigation. In pre-industrial times, water divides were crossed at portages. Later, canals connected adjoining drainage basins.

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