1. Physical Geography of the USA

 

The U.S. is divided into 50 states and 1 district. Most of the States in central North America, The total area is more than 9 and a half million sq. km. The world’s 3rd largest country. Three land borders: 2 with Canada and 1 with Mexico. The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and a territorial water border with Russia in the northwest. The contiguous forty-eight states are otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Alaska borders the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Strait to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, while Hawaii lies far to the southwest of the mainland in the Pacific Ocean.

Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia, is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia had also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization.

United States landscape varies greatly: temperate forestland on the East cast, the Mississippi-Missouri river system, the Great Lakes shared with Canada, Rocky Mountains west of the plains, deserts and temperate coastal zones west of Rocky Mountains and temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest, volcanic islands of Hawaii and Alaska.

2. Regions

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The geography of the United States varies across their immense area. Within the continental U.S., eight distinct physiographic divisions exist, though each is composed of several smaller physiographic subdivisions. These major divisions are:

Laurentian Upland - part of the Canadian Shield that extends into the northern United States Great Lakes area.

Atlantic Plain - the coastal regions of the eastern and southern parts includes the continental shelf, the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf Coast.

Appalachian Highlands - lying on the eastern side of the United States, it includes the Appalachian Mountains, the Watchung Mountains, the Adirondacks and New England province originally containing the Great Eastern Forest.

Interior Plains - part of the interior contentintal United States, it includes much of what is called the Great Plains.

Interior Highlands - also part of the interior contentintal United States, this division includes the Ozark Plateau.

Rocky Mountain System - one branch of the Cordilleran system lying far inland in the western states.

Intermontane Plateaus - also divided into the Columbia Plateau, the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range Province, it is a system of plateaus, basins, ranges and gorges between the Rocky and Pacific Mountain Systems. It is the setting for the Grand Canyon, the Great Basin and Death Valley.

Pacific Mountain System - the coastal mountain ranges and features in the west coast of the United States.

Highest Point:

Mt. McKinley, (Alaska) 20,320 ft. (6,194 m).

Highest Point: (continental 48 states)

Mount Whitney, (California) is the highest point at 14,495ft (4,418 m)

Lowest Point:

Death Valley, (California)(-282 ft.) (-86 m)

Mean Elevation: (average) 2,512 feet

Land Borders:

Alaska, USA - Canada 1,538 miles (2,475 km)

Canada - USA 3,145 miles (5,061 km)

Mexico - USA 1,951 miles (3,141 km)

Bordering Countries (2) Canada and Mexico

Coastlines:

Coastlines: 12,383 miles (19,928 km)

Atlantic coastline: 2,069 miles (3,330 km)

Pacific coastline:+ Hawaii: 7,623 miles (12,268 km)

Gulf of Mexico coastline: 1,631 miles (2,625 km)

Alaska coastline: 1,060 miles (1,706 km)

3. Main Rivers

Colorado River

Beginning in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado, it moves southwest ending in the Gulf of California. It is (1,450 miles) (2,333 km) in length, and has formed numerous canyons along its winding path. The most famous of these is the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.

The river has more than 30 electric power plants along its run and dozens of dams and reservoirs.

Columbia River

This wide, fast-flowing river begins in the Canadian Rockies of southeast British Columbia, Canada, flowing south through the State of Washington, then forming the natural border between Washington and Oregon. It ends in the Pacific Ocean and it is (1,152 miles) (1,857 km) in length.

Hydroelectric power development in the river basin brought inexpensive electricity to the Pacific Northwest, but it severely affected salmon spawning and local fish migration.

Mississippi River

It is the major river of North America and the United States (2,339 miles) (3,765 km). It flows from northwestern Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico, just below the city of New Orleans. It is a significant transportation artery and when combined with its major tributaries (the Missouri and Ohio rivers) it becomes the third largest river system in the world.

Missouri River

It begins in southern Montana in the Rocky Mountains, first flowing north then generally southeast across the heart of the United States, ending at the Mississippi River, just to the north of St. ............