The Continental Divide in North America, also known as the Rocky Mountain Divide is the largest water divide in North America, which provides a vast watershed boundary that runs from the extreme northwest tip of Alaska through the entirety of North America. This vast cordillera system, separates those rivers which flow to the Pacific Ocean from those that flow to the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, or Arctic Ocean.

This continental water divide is a prominent continental feature which forms a geological backbone along the high ridge of the Rocky Mountains, with the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) often following the height of land as it traverses various mountain ranges in its traverses in a generally north-south direction across the United States.

Too, this divide is a fairly continuous ridge of north-south trending mountain summits in western North America which divide the continent′s principal drainage into that flowing eastward and that flowing westward. Most of the divide runs along the crest of the Rocky Mountains, from the westernmost tip of Alaska, then the Yukon territory in northwest Canada, then through British Columbia and along the British Columbia–Alberta border in Canada, and through several of the US states including: Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. It continues southward into Mexico and Central America, roughly paralleling the Sierra Madre Occidental and the Sierra Madre del Sur, with their associated ranges in Central America.

The name "Continental Divide" is applied to the main water parting within any continent.

The American Cordillera is a massive, interconnected chain of mountain ranges extending along the western edge of the Americas from Alaska to Antarctica, stretches for 9,300-10,500 miles (15,000 to 17,000 kilometers) through North, Central and South America and according to some wise men, even extending into Antarctic.

It comprises the North American Cordillera, which alone is about 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) long, together with the Andes Mountains which is about 4,350-5,530 miles (7,000–8,900 kilometers) long, forming the world's longest continental mountain range system.

The American Cordillera is a nearly continuous system, and a mountainous region that is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, encompasses diverse physiographic provinces including fold-and-thrust belts, volcanic arcs, plateaus, and extensional basins, and it influences regional climate, hydrology, and biodiversity across two continents

Geologically, the American Cordillera originated from the subduction of oceanic plates beneath the western margins of the Americas, beginning in the late Paleozoic and intensifying during the Mesozoic era with the convergence of the Farallon Plate and its successors against the North American and South American plates.

Key orogenic events include:(1) the Antler Orogeny (Late Devonian to Early Carboniferous), which initiated compression along the western North American margin; (2) the Nevadan Orogeny (Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, ~180–140 Ma), involving arc magmatism and terrane accretion; (3) the Sevier Orogeny (Cretaceous, ~140–50 Ma), forming fold-and-thrust belts in the eastern segments; and 4() the Laramide Orogeny (Late Cretaceous to Early Paleogene, ~80–35 Ma), which uplifted the Rocky Mountains through basement-involved deformation.

In the southern portion, the Andean phase of uplift accelerated during the Cenozoic (~30 Ma onward) due to ongoing Nazca Plate subduction, resulting in the world's longest continental mountain chain with peaks exceeding 22,000 feet (6,700 m), such as Aconcagua.