Types of Water Divide

Different types of water divide are characterized on the basis that how the water divide converges. There are basically three types of water divide which are:

1. Continental Water Divide
2. Major Water Divide
3. Minor Water Divide

• Continental Water Divide: Continental divide, is a division of water where water on both sides flows into different seas.Example – Congo-Nile divide.
• Major Water Divide: The major divide is that in which the water on either side never meets, but instead converges on the same sea or ocean. Example – Yellow River basin and the Yangtze.
• Minor Water Divide: Minor divides are where the water eventually flows into the confluence of rivers on both sides of it. Example – Mississippi River and Missouri drainage Divide.

Any elevated area or highlands or uplands, such as a mountain, a hill, a plateau, a terrain, or any other land area higher than the land in its surrounding, separates the two water basins and divides the basin into two parts. Such highlands are known as the water divide. Water divides are also known by various names such as watersheds, ridgeline, water parting, and land elevations.

On rugged lands, the splits are along the ridges of the terrain and can take the form of a single chain of hills or mountains known as dividing ranges or split chains.