Columbia Basin
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The Columbia Basin, the drainage basin of the Columbia River, occupies a large area–about 673,396 square kilometres (260,000 square miles)—of the Pacific Northwest region of North America.[1] In common usage, the term often refers to a smaller area, generally the portion of the drainage basin that lies within eastern Washington.[1]
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[edit] Complete watershed
The Columbia Basin includes the southeastern portion of the Canadian province of British Columbia, most of the U.S. states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, the western part of Montana, and very small portions of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. The south and southeastern drainage divide borders the interior drainage of the northern Great Basin. To the northeast the region borders the basins of the Saskatchewan River (Hudson Bay) and the MacKenzie River (Beaufort Sea), and to the northwest the basin of the Fraser River. The Columbia Basin extends from the Rocky Mountains in the east to the Cascade Range and the Columbia River's outflow at the Pacific Ocean in the west.
[edit] Common usage
Residents of the area surrounding the confluence of the Columbia and Snake rivers—a region centering on the Tri-Cities, Washington metropolitan area—use the term "Columbia Basin" to refer to their own, much smaller region. This usage is roughly synonymous with the Columbia River Plateau, and may be defined as the part of the drainage basin covering the Columbia River Basalt Group, or as the area bounded by the Cascades, Blue, Wallowa, and Rocky mountain ranges and the Okanagan Highland. At its center is the Pasco Basin, an area roughly double the size of, and fully containing, the Hanford Site.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Floyd, Ben, et al. "Glossary". (1998) Hanford Reach Protection and Management Program Interim Action Plan. Prosser, Washington: Benton County Planning Department.
