Continental Divide of the Americas

High school (ages 12+)
Geography

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/continental-divide-of-the-americas

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the Continental Divide of the Americas?It is a giant watery wall that splits the continent, guiding water to either the Pacific or the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.
2. Where does the Continental Divide run?It stretches from the Bering Strait in the north to the Strait of Magellan in the south, mainly along the Rocky Mountains and the Andes.

Hydrological Divide: A topographic line that separates drainage basins, determining the direction of water flow into different bodies of water.
Watershed: The entire area of land that drains water into a particular river, stream, lake, or ocean.
Tectonic Uplift: The process by which large sections of the Earth's crust are raised to higher elevations due to geological forces.