Mackenzie River
At , the Mackenzie River drainage basin encompasses nearly 20 percent of Canada. About , or 54 percent of the basin, lies above Great Slave Lake. Permafrost underlies about three-quarters of the watershed, reaching up to deep in the Mackenzie Delta. As a whole, the Mackenzie basin receives only meager to moderate rainfall, averaging over the entire basin, though mountain areas experience much higher precipitation, and areas near and north of the Arctic Circle receive much lower precipitation.
Rainwater Basin
Starks first recognized that the larger of these basins are approximately elliptical to elongate in shape. The larger and semi-elliptical of these basins typically measure about by . Most basins are closed depressions that hold runoff from the surrounding landscape to form seasonal lakes and wetlands in them. Some of these basins have been naturally "breached", or drain to an outside watershed, and no longer hold precipitation run-off. Many of the large semi-elliptical to elliptical Rainwater Basins have a crescent-shaped ridge that Stark referred to as a "lunette" located on the southeast side of them. These distinctive ridges are about in relief.