List of unusual drainage systems

The following is a list of unusual drainage systems.

List

Bifurcation rivers (active)

• The Casiquiare canal – natural waterway connecting the Orinoco and Amazon rivers.
• The Chicago River and Calumet River artificially divert water from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.
• The Echimamish River in Canada connects the Hayes and Nelson rivers and was much used as a shortcut by voyageurs.
• The Nerodimka flows into the Aegean and Black seas.
• Parting of the Waters, Wyoming
• Arroyo Partido, Neuquén, Argentina
• Slims River: In the spring of 2016 a melting glacier diverted most of the Slims River from the Bering Sea to the Gulf of Alaska watershed.
• Tärendö River – in Sweden
• The Selinda Spillway of the Cuando River of Angola, Namibia and Botswana

Bifurcation rivers (extinct)

• The Chu River in Kyrgyzstan flows east to within a few kilometres of Lake Issyk-Kul, makes a hairpin turn, and flows west without entering the lake.
• The Manych River east of the Black Sea formerly flowed both east and west.

Bifurcation lakes

• Bontecou Lake in New York outflows into two watersheds, those of the Hudson and Housatonic rivers.
• The artificial Gatun Lake in Panama drains into the Atlantic and Pacific.
• Isa Lake in Yellowstone National Park drains to the Atlantic and Pacific.
• At the summit of Athabasca Pass in the Canadian Rockies is a small lake, the Committee's Punch Bowl, that drains both east and west.
• Wollaston Lake in Canada is the world’s largest bifurcation lake, draining both northwest to the Arctic Ocean and northeast to Hudson Bay.
• Lake Diefenbaker – in Canada
• Inhottu, Isojärvi, Kivesjärvi, Kuolimo, Lummene, Vehkajärvi and Vesijako – in Finland
• Lake Manapouri in New Zealand has been modified as part of a hydroelectric scheme such that it drains (naturally) south to Foveaux Strait via the Waiau River and (artificially) west via a constructed tunnel to Doubtful Sound
• Lac Sainte-Anne located at N50.14222° W67.86399° north of Baie Comeau Quebec is shown on Canadian government topographical maps as draining into Rivière Toulnustouc and also into Rivière Godbout Est

Other unusual systems

• The Kootenay River in British Columbia, a tributary of the Columbia River, passes a mere two kilometers from the source of the Columbia River, Columbia Lake.
• The Tonlé Sap River in Cambodia flows north in the wet season and south in the dry season.
• Lake Torrens in Australia, a normally endorheic lake that drains into the Spencer Gulf (Indian Ocean) via the Pirie–Torrens corridor after sufficiently extreme rainfall events.
• Lake Vostok is a subglacial lake beneath the Antarctic ice cap.
• Bahr Yussef – in Egypt.
• Traverse Gap, an ancient river valley now crossed by a continental divide; in historic times it was possible to ascend a watercourse from one side and descend the watercourse on the other.
• The AuSable River and Manistee River in Michigan, which drain into Lake Huron and Lake Michigan respectively, pass within 3 miles of each other in Crawford County.
• The Inland Waterway of Michigan, a chain of rivers and lakes flowing into Lake Huron come within half of a mile of Lake Michigan
• Semuc Champey - in Guatemala. That Cahabón River flows under a natural bridge supporting limestone-rimmed pools.
• The Danube Sinkhole near Möhringen, where the waters of the upper Danube river, which flows into the Black Sea, can sink into the Danube riverbed, through a system of caverns, that outflow towards the Radolfzeller Aach, a creek that flows into Rhine River, which flows into the North Sea.

See also

• River bifurcation