page_title: Continental Divide of the Americas
section_title: Triple points
hierarchical_section_title: Continental Divide of the Americas / Geography / Triple points
caption_attribution_description: English: MT/ID border
context_page_description: The Continental Divide of the Americas is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean and, along the northernmost reaches of the Divide, those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay.
  Although there are many other hydrological divides in the Americas, the Continental Divide is by far the most prominent of these because it tends to follow a line of high peaks along the main ranges of the Rocky Mountains and Andes, at a generally much higher elevation than the other hydrological divisions.
context_section_description: Triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park, Montana, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the primary Continental Divide and the Northern or Laurentian Divide. From this point, waters flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic Ocean via Hudson Bay. Most geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and oceanographers consider this point the hydrological apex of North America, as Hudson Bay is generally considered part of the Arctic.  For example, the International Hydrographic Organization (in its current unapproved working edition only of Limits of Oceans and Seas) defines the Hudson Bay, with its outlet extending from 62.5 to 66.5 degrees north (just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle) as being part of the Arctic Ocean, specifically "Arctic Ocean Subdivision 9.11."
  This hydrological apex of North America status of Triple Divide Peak is the main reason behind the designation of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park as the "Crown of the Continent" of North America.  The summit of the peak is the world's only oceanic triple divide point.  Discounting Antarctica and its ice sheets, only one other continent (Asia) borders three oceans, but the inward-draining Endorheic basin area of Central Asia from western China to the Aral and Caspian Seas is so vast that any Arctic and Indian Ocean tributaries are never within proximity of each other. Thus, North America's status of having a single location draining into three oceans is unique in the world. 
  Sources differ, however, on whether Hudson Bay, entirely south of the Arctic Circle, is part of the Atlantic or Arctic Ocean.  Hudson Bay's water budget connects to the Atlantic more than to the Arctic Ocean.  The channels to the north of Hudson Bay are largely cut off by Baffin Island from the Arctic, so much of the water that enters it mixes with the Atlantic to the east via Hudson Strait rather than north into the Arctic. The result is that most of the ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier eventually ends up as water in the Atlantic Ocean.
  If Hudson Bay is considered part of the Atlantic, then the triple point is at an unimportant-looking, permanently snow and ice covered hump on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, on the southern slope of Snow Dome at 3,456 metres (11,300 ft).   The exact location of this potential triple point is somewhat indeterminate because the Columbia Icefield and the snow on top of it shifts from year to year. The snow that falls on it (about 10 metres (33 ft) per year) does not actually flow downhill as water, but creeps downhill in the form of glacial ice. 
  That ice flows down the Athabasca Glacier to the Arctic Ocean via the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers. Ice flowing west goes to the Pacific Ocean via Bryce Creek and the Bush and Columbia Rivers.  Ice flowing down the Saskatchewan Glacier goes via the North Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, and Nelson rivers into Hudson Bay. 
  While Triple Divide Peak (or, alternatively, Snow Dome) is the world's only oceanic triple divide, there are secondary triple divide points wherever any two continental divides meet. North America has five major drainage systems: into the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic oceans, plus Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Other sources such as the International Hydrographic Organization add a sixth: Canada's Northwest Passage basin.  Using just the five, there are four secondary continental divides and three secondary triple points, the two mentioned previously and a third near Hibbing, Minnesota, where the Northern Divide intersects the Saint Lawrence Seaway divide. Since there is no true consensus on what a continental divide is, there is no real agreement on where the secondary triple points are located. However, the main Continental Divide described in this article is a far more distinctive geological feature than the others and its two main triple points are much more prominent.
caption: The Continental Divide Trail often remains above the treeline and on the Divide, providing unobstructed views along its route.
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