North America: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY Chapter 4 Section 1 North America: PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

North America Clip (5 minutes)

North America at Night

Large Bodies of Water: North America is surrounded by 3 oceans: PACIFIC ARCTIC ATLANTIC

Other Major Bodies of Water Hudson Bay Gulf of Mexico Caribbean Sea

Lakes in North America The United States and Canada share the Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. These are the world’s largest freshwater lakes, and they were formed by melting glaciers, huge, slow-moving ice sheets.

The Great Lakes from Space

Major Rivers in America The major American river is the Mississippi. The smaller Ohio and Missouri rivers flow into the Mississippi and are called tributaries.

St. Lawrence River In Canada, the St. Lawrence River connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. The St. Lawrence is an important transportation corridor, because it enables ships to travel all the way from the Atlantic to the heart of the United States and Canada.

In the West are the Rocky Mountains, which extend through the United States and most of Canada. North America has several major mountain ranges. The Rocky Mountains are in the west and run from Canada to Mexico in the south.

In the East are the Appalachian Mountains In between these mountain chains are the Great Plains, good areas for farming.

The Great Plains are America’s breadbasket. The Coastal Plains in the southeast has good arable land for farming, but is prone to hurricanes.

Plateau Central Plateau of Mexico is where most people of Mexico live. http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/geography-of-mexico0.gif

Peninsulas A peninsula is surrounded by water on at least three sides. Yucatan Peninsula - famous tourist spot Baja California Florida

Other Physical Features Canadian Shield –too cold and rocky http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/images/CanadianShield.jpg

Other Physical Features Caribbean Islands-$$ from tourism

Other Physical Features Panama Canal- man-made shortcut for ships

COLD HOT

Climate The United States has more types of climates than any other continent. Alaska is far north and very cold. Hawaii and Florida are near the tropics, the area between 23°N and 23°S latitudes; their climate is hot.

The Southwestern part of the United States & Central Mexico includes deserts.