The list of
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
s by area identifies basins (also known as "catchments" or, in North American usage, "watersheds"), sorted by area, which drain to
ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...
s,
mediterranean sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
s, rivers, lakes and other water bodies. All basins larger than are included as well as selected smaller basins. It includes drainage basins which do not flow to the ocean (
endorheic basin
An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...
s). It includes oceanic sea drainage basins which have hydrologically coherent areas (oceanic seas are
set by IHO convention).
The oceans drain approximately 83% of the land in the world. The other 17% – an area larger than the basin of the Arctic Ocean – drains to internal endorheic basins. There are also substantial areas of the world that do not "drain" in the commonly understood sense. In
polar desert
Polar deserts are the regions of Earth that fall under an ice cap climate (''EF'' under the Köppen classification). Despite rainfall totals low enough to normally classify as a desert, polar deserts are distinguished from true deserts (' or ' un ...
s, much of the snowfall sublimates directly into the air and does not melt into flowing water, while in
tropical deserts precipitation may evaporate before joining any substantial water course. These areas can still be included in topographically defined basins the hypothetical flow of water (or ice), and thus nutrients or pollutants, over the surface of the ground (or ice sheet) is considered. For example, the Antarctic ice sheet can be divided into basins,
and most of Libya is included in the Mediterranean Sea basin even though almost no water from the interior actually reaches the sea.
Basins
See also
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List of rivers by discharge
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List of rivers by dissolved load
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List of rivers by length
This is a list of the longest rivers on Earth. It includes river systems over in length.
Definition of length
There are many factors, such as the identification of the source, the identification or the definition of the mouth, and the scale o ...
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Triple divide
Notes
References
External links
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Lake database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drainage Basins By Area
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Lists by area
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Hydrology lists