This Earthcache is located on Hwy.28 in Highlands, NC.
A continental divide is created by the forming of mountain ranges through the folding of the earth's crust.
It is an imaginary line of elevated terrain that forms a border between two watersheds such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of the continent.
A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian mountains reveals elongated belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor, which provides strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision.
The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 300 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the Supercontinent Pangaea with the Appalachians near the center.
Because North America and Africa were connected, the Appalachians form part of the same mountain chain as the Anti-Atlas in Morocco. To the northeast, the same mountain chain continues into Scotland, from the North America/Europe collision.
Because the exact border between bodies of water is usually not clearly defined, the continental divide is not always definite for any continent (The International Hydrographic Organization's publication Limits of Oceans and Seas defines exact boundaries of oceans, but it is not universally recognized). Moreover, some rivers empty into inland seas, and thus do not end up in the oceans.
The Eastern Continental Divide runs from a triple point or triple divide on an unnamed peak near the town of Gold in northern Pennsylvania near Wellsville (village), New York down the Appalachian Mountains, through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, and down through the tip of Florida.
The Eastern Divide or Eastern Continental Divide (ECD) is a continental divide in the United States that separates the Gulf of Mexico drainage from the watersheds that flow directly into an ocean.
There are four Continental divides in North America.
The other three are the Great Divide, also called the Continental Divide, the Northern or Laurential Divide, and the St. Lawrence Seaway Divide.
To log this Earthcache as a find you must provide the following:
1 - Post a photo of yourself or someone in your party at the Eastern Continental Divide road sign at this location (With the Elevation covered up of course). (Optional, but would be appreciated.)
2 - Tell me what two large bodies of water that the rainfall in this particular location will eventually flow to.
3 - Tell me the elevation at this location.
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