Hudson Bay drainage basin

Hudson Bay drainage basin
drainage basin
The Hudson Bay drainage basin drains to the Davis Strait, a sea north of the 60th parallel north that extends east from the Labrador Peninsula.[1]
Countries Canada, United States
Highest point Mount Assiniboine
 - location Canadian Rockies
 - coordinates 50°12′10″N 115°39′3″W / 50.20278°N 115.65083°W / 50.20278; -115.65083

The Hudson Bay drainage basin is the drainage basin in northern North America where surface water empties into Hudson Bay and adjoining waters. Spanning an area of about 3,861,400 square kilometres (1,490,900 sq mi),[2] the basin is almost totally in Canada (spanning parts of the Prairies, central and northern Canada), with a small portion in the United States (in Montana, the Dakotas, and Minnesota). The watershed's headpoints are on the Continental Divide of the Americas, and the watershed's outlet at the Davis Strait is the Hudson Strait's mouth between Resolution Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region and Cape Chidley on the Labrador Peninsula.[1] On the Continental Divide the basin is bounded at Triple Divide Peak to the south, and Snow Dome to the north.

Usually considered part of the North Atlantic Ocean,[3] Hudson Bay is sometimes said to be part of the Arctic Ocean, though its waters flow predominantly to the Atlantic.[4]

The Hudson Bay drainage basin coincides almost completely with the former territory Rupert's Land, claimed by the Hudson's Bay Company in the 17th century, and an ideal area for the early fur trade in northern and central North America.

References

  1. 1 2 Limits of Oceans and Seas (PDF), 1953, retrieved 2010-11-26
  2. ↑ "Canada Drainage Basins". The National Atlas of Canada, 5th edition. Natural Resources Canada. 1985. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
  3. ↑ Earle, Sylvia A.; Glover, Linda K. (2008). Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas. National Geographic Society. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-4262-0319-0. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
  4. ↑ Lewis, Edward Lyn; Jones, E. Peter; et al., eds. (2000). The Freshwater Budget of the Arctic Ocean. Springer. pp. 101, 282–283. ISBN 978-0-7923-6439-9. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.