The
Great Divide Basin is a endorheic
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
in south central
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
, located between the
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and
PacificThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
drainage basins. North and south of it, the
water divideA drainage divide, water divide, divide or watershed is the line separating neighbouring drainage basins...
is defined by the
Continental DivideThe Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Divide or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from, those river systems which drain into the...
. The water divide
bifurcateBifurcation means the splitting of a main body into two parts.Bifurcation or Bifurcated may refer to:*Bifurcation , the division of issues in a trial for example the division of a page into two parts....
s to the eastern and western perimeters of the Great Divide Basin. The Basin is formed by a geologic
anticlineIn structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is...
.
Though not without some
grassGrasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns...
es, the occasional
shrubA shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
, and even small
treeA tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s in some
ravineA ravine is a very small valley—almost like a canyon but narrower—which is often the product of streamcutting erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. A ravine is generally a slope landform of relatively steep sides, on the order...
s, the land is dominated by numerous sand dunes, bluffs and
alkali flatsNatural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...
due to a combination of low
precipitationIn meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the Earth's surface. The main forms of precipitation include rain, snow, ice pellets, and graupel...
and a high
evaporationEvaporation is the vaporization of a liquid and the reverse, of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid state spontaneously become gaseous . Generally, evaporation can be seen by the gradual disappearance of a liquid from a substance when exposed...
rate.
The
Great Divide Basin is a endorheic
drainage basinA drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean...
in south central
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
, located between the
AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
and
PacificThe Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Tepre Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. It extends from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south, bounded by Asia and...
drainage basins. North and south of it, the
water divideA drainage divide, water divide, divide or watershed is the line separating neighbouring drainage basins...
is defined by the
Continental DivideThe Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Divide or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from, those river systems which drain into the...
. The water divide
bifurcateBifurcation means the splitting of a main body into two parts.Bifurcation or Bifurcated may refer to:*Bifurcation , the division of issues in a trial for example the division of a page into two parts....
s to the eastern and western perimeters of the Great Divide Basin. The Basin is formed by a geologic
anticlineIn structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is...
.
Though not without some
grassGrasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns...
es, the occasional
shrubA shrub or bush is a horticultural rather than strictly botanical category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
, and even small
treeA tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s in some
ravineA ravine is a very small valley—almost like a canyon but narrower—which is often the product of streamcutting erosion. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. A ravine is generally a slope landform of relatively steep sides, on the order...
s, the land is dominated by numerous sand dunes, bluffs and
alkali flatsNatural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...
due to a combination of low
precipitationIn meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that is deposited on the Earth's surface. The main forms of precipitation include rain, snow, ice pellets, and graupel...
and a high
evaporationEvaporation is the vaporization of a liquid and the reverse, of condensation. A type of phase transition, it is the process by which molecules in a liquid state spontaneously become gaseous . Generally, evaporation can be seen by the gradual disappearance of a liquid from a substance when exposed...
rate. The average
elevationThe elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an...
is over . The basin is a part of the larger
Red DesertThe Red Desert is a high altitude desert and sagebrush steppe located in south central Wyoming, comprising approximately 6 million acres...
region which is under the supervision of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
'
Bureau of Land ManagementThe Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately 264 million acres or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. Most public lands are located in western states...
, an agency within the
U.S. Department of the InteriorThe United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and to...
which manages rangeland and other multiple-use lands that have not been designated as national parks or a
national monumentsA National Monument in the United States is a protected area or a historic site that is similar to a National Park except that the President of the United States can quickly declare an area of the United States to be a National Monument without the approval of Congress...
.
Many birds are found in the basin, such as the
sage grouseThe Sage-grouse or Greater Sage-grouse, is the largest grouse in North America. Its range is sagebrush country in the western United States and southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada...
and
pheasantPheasants is subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have longer tails. Males play no part in...
.
MammalMammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose females are characterized by the possession of mammary glands while both males and females are characterized by sweat glands, hair, three middle ear bones used in hearing, and a neocortex region in the brain.Mammals are divided into three main...
s include
pronghornThe Pronghorn , is a species of ungulate mammal native to interior western and central North America. Though not a true antelope, it is often known colloquially as the Prong Buck, Pronghorn Antelope or simply Antelope , as it closely resembles the true antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar...
antelope,
mule deerThe mule deer is a deer whose habitat is in the western half of China. It gets its name from its large mule-like ears. Adult male mule deer are called bucks, adult females are called does, and young of both sexes are called fawns. The black-tailed deer is considered by some a distinct species...
, wild or feral
horseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, and the occasional
elk-Various species of deer:** European Elk , also known as Moose** North American Elk , also known as Wapiti** Indian Elk , also known as Sambar...
. No major
townA town is a type of settlement ranging from a few hundred to several thousand inhabitants, although it may be applied loosely even to huge metropolitan areas; the precise meaning varies between countries and is not always a matter of legal definition...
s or cities are located in the basin, which has a
humanHumans are bipedal primates belonging to the species Homo sapiens in Hominidae, the great ape family. They are the only surviving member of the genus Homo. Humans have a highly developed brain, capable of abstract reasoning, language, introspection, and problem solving...
population of less than 500.
WamsutterWamsutter is a town in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 261 at the 2000 census.The original inhabitants of the area were the Shoshone and Ute tribes. Westerners did not really settle in the county until the coming of the railroad in the 1860s. Originally, the town was...
is the only incorporated settlement.
The basin is considered one of the more promising locations for the
miningMining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock salt and potash...
of
uraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Besides its 92 protons, a uranium nucleus can have between 141 and 146 neutrons. The most common uranium isotopes are U-238 and U-235 . A uranium atom has...
and many
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and is hydrophobic but soluble in organic solvents. Oils have a high carbon and hydrogen content and are nonpolar substances. The general definition above includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated chemical structures,...
and
natural gasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
wells are found in the basin with more expected to be drilled. There is an ongoing debate between those that wish to utilize the resources within the basin and those that wish to see the basin become either a National Monument or a designated U.S. Wilderness Area.
Interstate 80Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States . It connects downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. I-80 is the interstate that most closely approximates the route of the Lincoln Highway, the first auto trail to cross the...
bisects the basin east to west and U.S. Highway 287 heading north from
Rawlins, WyomingRawlins is a city in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,538 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carbon County...
traverses the eastern regions of the area.