While driving east across the top on the United States for the purpose of developing my roadpath journey, the
Northern Tier Route, I had crossed into state of North Dakota and then came upon a road sign which read:
Continental Divide: Elevation 2210 feet, so I stopped to investigate.
(m2cont-nam-geol-wa-2025-1005.1526) Laurentian Continental Divides (46.8924135, -98.3541785)
Immediately, methinks, this is not the Rocky Mountain Divide, so it must be one of the other divides that I had previously studied about, which, when I did study divides, I learned that there are five water divides in the North American continent. So my previous research cause me to recognize that this divide is not the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide, but instead, one of the other five. I got my phone and brought up my website, worked my way to the page that had the section with the
Water Divides Index and then selected the Link. When I next arrived at the Water Divides page, I then saw the map of North America showing the Divides and Basins. It did not take me long to see that the only divide in North Dakota is the Laurentian Water Divide. Now that I now have come to learn about this geological feature personally, I looked at my man and could see that this divide crosses through the states of Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota before leaving the United States and travels northeast into Canada. Too, what little I knew about water divides is that any rain falling to the earth north of this line will flow towards Canada ending up flowing into Hudson Bay. However, any rain falling south of this water divide will flow into the United States, and because I had not arrived into Minnesota yet, that rain fall would specifically flow into the
Mississippi River.
Later, when I arrive in Minnesota, I could come upon where the Laurentian Divide meets the Saint Lawrence Divide at the Hill of Three Waters (47.4476486, -92.9471417) (also known as a national hydrogeographic "triple divide") near Hibbing, Minnesota, forming a triple watershed point where water can flow into the Gulf of Mexico (via the Mississippi River), the Hudson Bay (via the Nelson River), and into the St. Lawrence River/Gulf of St. Lawrence. However, due to the encroaching freezing temperatures on this road path journey, I did not have time to explore that triple divide near Hibbing, Minnesota, but that could likely happen the next time I journey through this geographical region.
Nevertheless, what this stop along my road path on that Sunday afternoon gave me was an intense interest about learning more about Water Divides and their siblings Water Basins. But even more than that, since I have been creating a new section in my Geological Wonders section of my web site and have been researching and learning about all of the intricacies of divides, basins and the current number of Triple Divide junction, which was four, I have discovered a previously unknown fifth Triple Divide, which is located on the border between the provinces of Quebec and Labrador. Thus, since I am the discoverer of this new Triple Divide, I have the privilege of giving it a name. Therefore, after doing extensive research, the name that I choose is in one of the local indigenous languages, the word Kanatuahkuian, which in English means, "I am Happy."
Laurentian Information:
Description:
The Laurentian Divide is a continental divide in central North America that separates the Hudson Bay watershed to the north from the Gulf of Mexico watershed to the southwest and the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence watershed to the southeast. Water that falls on the land north of this divide will flow northward to the Hudson Bay.
From the divide's junction with the Continental Divide at Triple Divide Peak, just south of the U.S. border in northwestern Montana, it runs north to just across the border then east through southern Alberta and Saskatchewan where it turns southeasterly reentering the U.S. at the northwestern corner of North Dakota. It then continues to the extreme northeast corner of South Dakota before crossing the middle of Minnesota's western border at the Traverse Gap. The divide then runs north and east through northern Minnesota, through Superior National Forest in the eastern tip, into Ontario. There it passes to the north of Lake Nipigon, then runs as far south as the 48th parallel before veering north again to cross the western border of Quebec just south of Lake Abitibi. It then meanders northeasterly across Quebec to the southwestern boundary of Labrador. From there, it follows the boundary jaggedly north to Killiniq Island where it becomes the boundary between Nunavut and Labrador before reaching its terminus at Cape Chidley on the Labrador Sea.
Location:
Length:
2000 miles (3,200 kilometers)
Eastern Coordinates:
60.6956784, -64.6383380
Elevation:
Sea Level
Western Coordinates:
48.5729992, -113.5168693
Elevation:
8,052 feet
The Ancients
The Earth
The Modern Man
The Steps
Steps Afoot
Steps Afield
Laurentide Ice Sheet
The Laurentide ice sheet, according to the wise men of this world, occurred multiple times throughout the Pleistocene Epoch during the first part of the
Quarternary period and was a massive continental glacier covering all of Canada (except the area west of the Rocky Mountains) as well as much of the northern portions of the United States.
(m2geoc-2025-laurentide-ice-map) Laurentian Ice Sheet
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