Geography of North America Totally Explained

Everything about Geography Of North America totally explained

North America is the third largest continent with an estimated population of around 460 million, ca. 24,346,000 km² (9,400,000 square miles), (if Eurasia is excluded), and the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere.. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Caribbean Sea, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and South America on the south, and the Arctic Ocean on the north. Canada covers most of the northern half of North America (much of which is sparsely populated). Alaska, the largest state of the U.S.A., occupies the northwestern part of the continent. North America consists of all the mainland and related offshore islands lying north of the Colombia-Panama border according to most sources, or the Panama Canal according to a few. Anglo-America can describe Canada and the USA together, while the northern part of Latin America comprises Mexico, the countries of Central America, and the Caribbean. (For more, see Americas (terminology)).
Its natural features include the Rocky Mountains, the Appalachian Mountains (the largest mountains in the east), the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi, Missouri, Rio Grande, and St Lawrence rivers.
Climate is mainly determined, to a large extent, by the latitude, ranging from Arctic cold in the north to tropical heat in the south. The western half of North America tends to have wilder and wetter climate than other areas with equivalent latitude, although there are steppes (known as "prairies") and deserts in the "United States Southwest" (Arizona, Colorado, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma, Texas), along with the Mexico states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas.

History

Physiographically, the continent may be divided into at least five major regions: the Canadian Shield, which is a geologically stable area of ancient rock that occupies most of the northeastern quadrant, including Greenland; the Appalachian Mountains, a geologically old and eroded system that extends from the Gaspé Peninsula to Alabama; the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain, a belt of lowlands widening to the south that extends from South New England to Mexico; the Interior Lowlands, which extends down the middle of the continent from the Mackenzie Valley to the Gulf Coastal Plain including the Great Plains on the west and the agriculturally productive Interior Plains on the east; and the North American Cordillera, a complex belt of geologically young mountains and associated plateaus and basins, which extend from Alaska into Mexico and includes two orogenic belts—the Pacific Margin on the west and the Rocky Mountains on the east—separated by a system of intermontane plateaus and basins.. The Coastal Plain and the main belts of the North American Cordillera continue in the south in Mexico (where the Mexican Plateau, bordered by the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental. It is considered a continuation of the intermontane system) to connect the Transverse Volcanic Range, a zone of high and active volcanic peaks south of Mexico City.
   During the Ice Age of the late Cenozoic era, a continental ice sheet covered much of the continent, centered west of Hudson Bay (the floor of which is slowly rebounding after being depressed by the great weight of the ice). Glaciers descended the slopes of the Rocky Mountains and those of the Pacific Margin. Extensive glacial lakes, such as Glacial Lake Missoula, Bonneville (see Bonneville Salt Flats), Lahontan, Agassiz, and Algonquin, formed by glacial melt water. "Remnants of them are still visible in the Great Basin and along the edge of the Canadian Shield in the form of the Great Salt Lake, the Great Lakes, and the large lakes of west central Canada." Mexico and its long plateaus and cordilleras fall largely in the western region, although the eastern coastal plain does extend south along the Gulf.
   The western mountains have split in the middle, into the main range of the Rockies and the Coast Ranges in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia with the Great Basin (a lower area containing smaller ranges and low-lying deserts) in between. The highest peak is Mount McKinley/Denali in Alaska.
   The United States Geographical Survey states that the geographic center of North America is “6 miles west of Bata, Pierce County, North Dakota” at approximately 48⁰ 10′ north, 100⁰ 10′ west, approximately 15 miles (25 km) from Rugby, North Dakota. The USGS further states “No marked or monumented point has been established by any government agency as the geographic center of the 50 States, the conterminous United States, or the North American continent.” Nonetheless, there's a 15 foot (4.5 m) field stone obelisk in Rugby claiming to mark the center. Three countries (Canada, the United States, and Mexico) make up most of North America's land mass; they share the continent with 34 smaller nations located mainly south of Mexico and in the Caribbean.

Surface and climate

The Rocky Mountains stretches from north to south, in contrast to South American cordilleras lean on, west, elevated plateaus, which helps to develop large-sized rivers; less high and send to the east more expanded ramifications. The mountain systems don't allow indefinite connection with the cordillera system with exceptions. They lie in chains parallel to the nearest coasts in North America..
   North America extends to within 10° of latitude of both the equator and the North Pole. It embraces every climatic zone, from tropical rain forest and savanna on the lowlands of Central America to areas of permanent ice cap in central Greenland.. Its watershed is 1,221,000 square miles in area. Also important is the St. Lawrence River, which is drains 600,000 square miles and just like the Mississippi system, opens up the "heart" of the continent, while other rivers cross the northern plains.
   The Mississippi River is called the Father of Waters since it's one of the largest rivers in the world. Including its major tributary, the Missouri River, which rises in the Rocky Mountains, the Mississippi is 3,892 miles long. Its river basin drains 2/5ths of the Continental United States, which is 1/3 size of Europe. The Mississippi rises in several small lakes in Northern Minnesota at 1,670 ft above sea level..
   In 1960, the population of North America estimated at 405,000,000 persons. North America is the fourth largest continent by population. . However, in the Rocky Mountains mineral resources are often scarce.

Rocky Mountains

The Rockies known for it's the vast amount of resources has rich minerals that include bauxite, copper, lead, gold, silver, tungsten, uranium, and zinc. Coal, petroleum, and natural gas are other minerals to be found there in Wyoming. Wakes of toxic wastes dot and mine tailings the Rocky Mountain landscape. In one major example, eighty years of zinc mining polluted the river and bank near Eagle River in north-central Colorado. A high concentration of the metal carries off by spring runoff.
Agriculture and forestry are two major industries. Agriculture includes arid land and irrigated farming and livestock grazing. This provides you with some of the richest crops throughout the year. Livestock are often moved between high-elevation summer pastures and low-elevation and winter pastures.
Relief maps of the United States partially show why deserts come to exist. The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run along the entire Pacific Coast, acting as a barrier to the humid winds that sweep in from the ocean. The rising topography forces this air upwards, causing moisture to condense and fall in the form of rain on the western slopes of the mountains, with some areas receiving more than 70 inches of rainfall per year. As a result, the air has lost much of its moisture and becomes hot and dry when it reaches the areas east of the coastal mountain ranges. These hot, arid conditions are, in some instances, exacerbated in regions of extremely low altitude (some near or below sea level) by higher air pressure, resulting in drier conditions and adiabatic heating effects. What precipitation does fall generally doesn't last long, lost primarily to evaporation, as well as rapid runoff and efficient water uptake and storage by native vegetation.

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