drainage basin
Sign in to savearea of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water
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A drainage basin is an area of land where all the rain and snowmelt flow downhill and eventually drain into a common outlet like a river, bay, or lake. Understanding drainage basins matters because they help us track how water moves across landscapes and manage water resources for communities, agriculture, and ecosystems.
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The Mississippi River drains the largest area of any U.S. river, much of it agricultural regions. Agricultural runoff and other water pollution that flows to the outlet is the cause of the hypoxic or dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
A drainage basin is an area of land in which 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, the drainage divide, made up of a succession of elevated features, such as ridges and hills. A basin may consist of smaller basins that merge at river confluences, forming a hierarchical pattern.