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 feeds into a different ocean or sea. The most famous Continental Divide of the Americas is called the Great Divide. It separates the watersheds of the Pacific Ocean from those of the Atlantic Ocean. It runs from Alaska, through western Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. From there, it follows the crest of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental and extends to the tip of South America. However, this isn’t North America’s only continental divide, there is also the Northern Continental Divide, the Eastern Continental Divide, the Saint Lawrence River Divide, the Great Basin, and the Laurentian River Divide.
