contexts: The Continental Divide of the Americas ( also known as the Great Divide , the Continental Gulf of Division , or merely the Continental Divide ) is the principal , and largely mountainous , hydrological divide of the Americas . The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan , and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean ( including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea ) and , along the northernmost reaches of the Divide , those river systems that drain into the Arctic Ocean .
name: Continental Divide of the Americas
answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic Ocean
questions.input_text: how does the continental divide affect the flow of rivers in the western united states