Triple divide
point where three drainage basins meet
A triple divide or triple watershed is a point on Earth's surface where three drainage basins meet. A triple divide results from the intersection of three drainage divides. Triple divides range from prominent mountain peaks to minor side peaks, down to simple slope changes on a ridge which are otherwise unremarkable. The elevation of a triple divide can be thousands of meters to barely above sea level. Triple divides are a common hydrographic feature of any terrain that has rivers, streams and/or lakes.
Topographic triple divides do not necessarily respect the underground path of water. Thus, depending on the infiltration and the different geological layers, the hydrologic triple divide is often offset from the topographic triple divide.
A hydrological apex is a triple divide whose waters flow into three different oceans. Depending on definition, Triple Divide Peak in the U.S. state of Montana, or Snow Dome in Canada are the only such places on Earth.
Africa
An unnamed hill on the border between the Central African Republic and South Sudan: the exact point is at 09°08′24″N 23°28′07″E. Water from this point flows to the Atlantic Ocean via the Congo River, to the Mediterranean Sea via the Nile, or to endorheic Lake Chad.
“Triple divide” enters the record as point where three drainage basins meet. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Triple, divide and point can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Triple divide” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.