.is the continental divide basically where water starts running the opposite direction?

Question

I know this sounds stupid but I want to make sure that I have this right. Is the continental divide basically where water starts running the opposite direction?

Answer 1

The Continental Divide is where the waters part. The water on the eastern side all run into the Mississippi and other eastern and southwest rivers. The waters on the western side run into the Pacific Ocean.

Answer 2

First, you need to know the concept of a WATERSHED. The watershed is the area in which all water would eventually flow to a body of water the watershed is named for. If there are two watersheds that are next to each other, the boundary line is a DIVIDE. There are many divides in the US. For example, there is a divide between flow from the Appalachian Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountians to the Mississippi River. The Continental Divide is the boundary between watersheds that drain to the Pacific Ocean (the Snake, the Columbia, the Colorado) and those that drain to the Gulf of Mexico (the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande).

Answer 3

The Continental Divide is actually what determines the rivers that flow into a certain body of water. That line on maps shows where the sources of rivers r nearby. Also, rivers west of the C.D. flow into the Pacific while rivers east of it empty into the Gulf of Mexico. Incidentally, the Continental Divide in AK and Canada also separ8s the rivers emptying n2 the Pacific from those that flow into the Arctic or Hudson Bay, I think.

Answer 4

Scientists don't say the Earth will start rotating in the opposite direction. There is nothing that can cause the Earth to stop rotating in its current direction and start rotating in the opposite direction. It would take a large mass very close to the Earth in the right location and the right trajectory to cause this. The 'pole shift theory' is the hypothesis that the axis of rotation of Earth changes - that its physical poles will shift. It is established that true polar wander has occurred at various times in the past, but at rates of 1 degree per million years or so. That is a very small change over a very long time (no way we would notice even over a lifetime). But because people don't understand scientific terminology, misconceptions and misunderstandings are common. Pole shift hypotheses are also not to be confused with geomagnetic reversal - the periodic reversal of the earth's magnetic field (effectively switching the north and south magnetic poles). Geomagnetic reversal has more acceptance in the scientific community than pole shift hypotheses. At present, the geomagnetic field of the Earth is weakening at a rate which would, if it continues, cause the magnetic field to temporarily collapse by 3000–4000 AD. If that were to occur, the field would re-establish itself with the magnetic poles reversed (by the way, the sun does this magnetic polarity flip every 11 years).

Answer 5

Its not so much the opposite direction really.
The Continental Divide is the mountainous region of North America that separates rivers that flow to the east from rivers that flow to the west.

Answer 6

yes