Fascinating. Is there such a thing in Europe? I am not aware...
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@FailForward Yes there is. Probably more than one but the one I know about goes from the netherlands to romania as a continuous waterway. In fact there is a third leg connected to this river that can divide europe into 3 parts not just 2
@FailForward While we are on the topic here is one of my favorite maps showing water ways (attached), the coloring is significant.
Each unique color represents a watershed, that is each color all drains out in the same direction and to the same point, ultimately draining to a single outlet into an ocean. You can always get from any point in the same color to any other point.
WRT a waterway which connects from ocean to ocean that would occur anytime there is a point that sits between two colors, almost always a lake, that drains off into each color in different directions. These lakes are special in the sense that they are the relatively rare waterways that belong to two or more watersheds.
@freemo Thanks. Nice maps. Of course I know how drainage systems work, but I did not know there are natural connectors (you know, we built the Panama channel, but it would probably not "occur" on its own). On a second thought, though, it of course makes sense that occasionally Nature would produce such a thing. So to learn that there is such a creek (and more of such bifurcation rivers) is indeed interesting. And the split of the continent in the case of that creek is just so nice: right through the middle :-).
@FailForward Not all of those flow into entirely separate oceans mind you, but they do bifurcate between different watersheds at a minimum.
@FailForward I was taught as a kid about river flows that empty into two separate watersheds (I had a strong ecology education in highschool and below). So while I knew there were about 2 dozen such occurrences worldwide I actually couldn't remember many of them.. So I tried to do some research and find a list to refresh my memory, i didnt find anything at first but finally just found this list, it looks fairly complete:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_drainage_systems
@FailForward They are in fact fairly rare if we are talking only natural occurrences. Only about two dozen such occurrences worldwide as far as I know.