Pacific Northwest

Physical Geography:

The Pacific Northwest is highly active geologically. The region is dotted with several large active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountain Range. Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in the Pacific Northwest at 14,410 feet.

The Columbia River, which begins in the Columbia Plateau in western Idaho and flows through the Cascades to the Pacific Ocean, has the second-largest flow of water (behind the Mississippi River) than any other river in the lower 48 states.

In general, the Pacific Northwest has a wet and cool climate which has led to the growth of extensive forests featuring some of the largest trees in the world. The region's coastal forests are considered temperate rainforests. More inland however, the climate can be drier with more harsh winters and warmer summers (continentality ! )

Cultural Geography:

Skiing, snowboarding, cycling, mountaineering, hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, boating, and water sports are popular outdoor activities. Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and Spokane are home to numerous professional sports teams.

The Pacific Northwest is considered an educational center for both the United States and Canada as large universities such as the University of Washington, the University of Oregon and the University of British Columbia are located there.

The dominant ethnic groups of the Pacific Northwest are Caucasian, Mexican and Chinese.

The modern-era Pacific Northwest is known for indie music, especially grunge and alternative rock, as well as historically-strong folk music and world music traditions. Among the area's largest music festivals are the Merritt Mountain Music Festival, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the

Economic Activities:

The Pacific Northwest has a large but limited natural resource base, leading to an economy that is not highly diversified. The area's abundant precipitation and temperate climate support dense, coniferous forests, which are the basis of the region's production of lumber, plywood, and paper. Mountainous terrain and high levels of precipitation have provided this region with an enormous hydroelectric potential, focused on a system of dams and power-generating plants located on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

The mountainous terrain means that little land is suitable for agriculture, and dairy farming and grazing are the primary agrarian activities. Other agricultural activities include the growing of fruits, vegetables, and hardier grain crops. The waters of the Pacific Northwest are ranked as one of the major fishing centers of the world. Salmon is the most important fish commercially, but the region has significant catches of halibut, pollack, cod, and shellfish.

The economy of the Pacific Northwest is varied, but some of the world's largest and most successful technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel, Expedia and Amazon.com are located in the region.

Rocky Mountain Region Physical Geography:

The Rocky Mountains are a large mountain range located in the western part of North America in the United States and Canada. The "Rockies" as they are also known, pass through northern New Mexico and into Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. In total, the Rockies stretch for over 3,000 miles and form the Continental Divide of North America.

The Rockies are significant to the North American continent as a whole because the Continental Divide (the line which determines whether water will flow to the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean) is in the range.

The general climate for the Rocky Mountains is considered highland. Summers are usually warm and dry but mountain rain and thunderstorms can occur, while winters are wet and very cold. At high elevations, precipitation falls as heavy snow in the winter.

Cultural Geography:

Most of the Rocky Mountains are undeveloped and is protected by national parks like the Rocky Mountain National Park in the U.S. Despite their rugged nature though, the Rockies are a popular tourist destination for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping skiing, fishing and snowboarding. In addition, the high peaks of the range make it popular for mountain climbing. The highest peak in the Rocky Mountains is Mount Elbert at 14,400 feet and is located in Colorado.

Exploitable mineral deposits (lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold) are sparsely dispersed throughout the entire system. The principal mining centers are Leadville and Cripple Creek, Colorado. In the 1970s oil shale found in the Rocky Mt. area led to an oil industry that spurred city and state growth, especially in Colorado; by the mid-1980s, the industry was already in decline. Vast forests, largely under government control and supervision, are a major natural resource. Lumbering and other forestry activities are limited mainly to Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia, where commercially valuable stands are most abundant and accessible. The Rockies are a year-round recreational attraction, and the surrounding states have seen a boom in vacation-housing construction and, thus, population increases since the late 1970s. The U.S. national parks in the system include Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier. Rocky Mountain National Park is in central Colorado. Straddling the Continental Divide in the Front Range of the Southern Rockies, the park features more than 100 peaks towering over 11,000 ft. The park also contains many lakes and waterfalls. Great Plains / Mid-West Region

Physical Geography:

The Great Plains is the broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, that lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts, but not all, of the states of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming

In general, the Great Plains have a wide variety of weather through the year, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter. Grasslands are among the least protected biomes.[10] Humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. The Great Plains have dust storms mostly every year or so.

Cultural Geography:

The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the early 1800s easterners moved there in search of better farmland, and soon Europeans bypassed the East Coast to migrate directly to the interior: Germans to eastern Missouri, Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn. The region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket."

Midwesterners are praised as being open, friendly, and straightforward. Their politics tend to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered with protest. The Midwest gave birth to one of America's two major political parties, the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s to oppose the spread of slavery into new states. At the turn of the century, the region also spawned the Progressive Movement, which largely consisted of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. Perhaps because of their geographic location, many mid-westerners have been strong adherents of isolationism, the belief that Americans should not concern themselves with foreign wars and problems.

Today large farms and cattle ranches cover much of the Great Plains. In fact, it is some of the best farmland in the world. Wheat is an important crop, because wheat can grow well even without much rainfall. Large areas of the Great Plains, like this land in Texas, are also used for grazing cattle. The South West Physical Geography:

The geography of the region is mainly made up by four features: the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts, and the Colorado Plateau. The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, while the plateau (which is largely made up of high desert) is the main feature. The two major rivers of the region are the Colorado River, running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande, running in the south. Vegetation generally includes various types of yucca, along with barrel cactus, prickly pear cactus and sagebrush. Although, cacti is thought to only grow in Arizona and New Mexico, many native cacti grow throughout Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and West Texas. The mountains of the southwestern states have large tracts of alpine trees. Landscape features of the southwestern areas usually include mountains, mesas, high broad basins, plateaus, desert lands, and some plains, characteristic of the Basin and Range Province. The entire southwestern region features semi-arid to arid terrain. The far eastern part of southwestern Texas, for example the Texas Hill Country, consists of dry, tall, and rugged rocky hills of limestone and granite. South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley is mostly flat with many places consisting of scrub and bare topsoil, much like the deserts further west.

The southwestern United States features a semi-arid to arid climate, depending on the location. Much of the Southwest is an arid desert climate, but higher elevations in the mountains in each state, with the exception of West Texas, feature alpine climates with very large amounts of snow. The metropolitan areas of Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, and El Paso hardly ever receive any snow at all, as they are strictly desert lands with mountains. Albuquerque receives less snow than other cities, but still receive significant snowfalls in the winter time. Although it snows in this region, the snow in this part of the United States melts rapidly, often before nightfall. This is due mainly to the higher altitude and abundant sunshine in these states.

Cultural Geography:

Dams on the Colorado and other rivers and aqueducts such as those of the Central Arizona Project have brought water to once-small towns such as Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, allowing them to become metropolises. Las Vegas is renowned as one of the world's centers for gambling, while Santa Fe, New Mexico, is famous as a center for the arts, especially painting, sculpture, and opera. The Southwest also contains a unique variety of peoples. There are more distinct Native American cultures in Arizona and New Mexico than anywhere else in the United States. Included among these are the Navajo, Hopi and Apache in Arizona, and the various Pueblo Indian Societies located along the Rio Grande and its tributaries in New Mexico. The Southwest is also home to some of the oldest Hispanic communities in the United States, many of which date to the 16th century and 17th century Spanish conquest of the region. Scattered throughout the river valleys of the Southwest are also many small farming communities.

Economic Activities: Copper mining, particularly in Arizona, where open-pit operations account for about two-thirds of the nation’s total annual production, has been important since the 19th century. The discovery of petroleum and natural-gas deposits in the in Oklahoma and Texas resulted in oases of prosperity from local oil booms. Along the Gulf Coast a flourishing industrial region developed around Houston and other Gulf of Mexico ports, largely based on petrochemical industries. Also, since World War II and particularly in Arizona and Texas, manufacturing has become important, notably in the electrical, communications, aeronautical, automobile-assembly, and aluminum industries. The growth of population and industry also brought water shortages and, following the building of dams, disputes between states over the allocation of water resources, such as the diversion of water from the Colorado River. The South Physical Geography:

The South has long been a region apart, even though it is not isolated by any formidable natural barriers and is itself subdivided into many distinctive areas: the coastal plains along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; the Piedmont; the ridges, valleys, and high mountains bordering the Piedmont, especially the Great Smoky Mts. in North Carolina and Tennessee; areas of bluegrass, black-soil prairies, and clay hills west of the mountains; bluffs, floodplains, bayous, and delta lands along the Mississippi River. The South is a diverse meteorological region with numerous climatic zones, including temperate, sub-tropical, tropical, and arid—though the South is generally regarded as hot and humid, with long summers and short, mild winters. Most of the south—except for the higher elevations and areas near the western, southern and some northern fringes—fall in the humid subtropical climate zone.

Cultural Geography:

Usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, which have distinguished it in some ways from the rest of the United States. The Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European (mostly English, Irish, Scotch- Irish, Scottish and French), African, and some Native American components.

The region contains the Bible Belt, an area of high church attendance and predominantly conservative, religion-influenced politics. Indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations.[11][12] This is evident in both the region's religious attendance figures and in the region's usually strong support for the Republican Party in political elections since the 1960s.

Economic Activities: In the late 20th century, the South changed dramatically. It saw a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. Tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast grew steadily throughout the last decades of the 20th century. The long, hot growing season (nine months at its peak along the Gulf) and the fertile soil (much of it overworked or ruined by erosion) have traditionally made the South an agricultural region where such staples as tobacco, rice, and sugarcane have long flourished; citrus fruits, livestock, soybeans, and timber have gained in importance. Cotton, once the region's dominant crop, is now mostly grown in Texas, the Southwest, and California. Numerous new automobile production plants have opened in the region, or are soon to open, such as Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Hyundai in Montgomery, Alabama; the BMW production plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Toyota plants in Georgetown, Kentucky. The North East / New England Physical Geography:

New England's long rolling hills, mountains, and jagged coastline are glacial landforms resulting from the retreat of ice sheets approximately 18,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. The Appalachians extend northwards into New Hampshire as the White Mountains, and then into Maine and Canada. Mount Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak in the Northeast, although it is not among the ten highest peaks in the eastern United States. It is the site of the second highest recorded wind speed on Earth, and has the reputation of having the world's most severe weather.

The coast of the region, extending from southwestern Connecticut to northeastern Maine, is dotted with lakes, hills, marshes and wetlands, and sandy beaches.

In this region the winters are long, cold, and heavy snow is common (most locations receive 60 to 120 inches of snow annually in this region). The summer's months are moderately warm, though summer is rather short and rainfall is spread through the year.

Cultural Geography:

The high level of diversity has much to do with New York City, which was and still is an entry point for many immigrants; however, the other major cities of the region have significant ethnic diversity as well. The three largest cities in the Northeast (New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston) have the same four largest ancestries: African American, Italian, Irish, and Puerto Rican.

The people of New England are known for their warm hospitality, friendly manner and liberal approach to life. The majority of New Englanders love the great outdoors and, as such, plenty of outdoor activities are available throughout the region from hiking, biking and kayaking to more extreme sports including whitewater rafting, tubing and skydiving. New Englanders are very passionate when it comes to sports and the biggest professional teams in the region are the Boston Red Sox (baseball), the New England Patriots (American football), the Boston Celtics (basketball), the Boston Bruins (ice hockey) and the New England Revolution (soccer).

The Northeast has from colonial times relied on fishing and seafaring as a major source of its economic strength. The result has been an intensely developed seafood sector, which produces some of the most famous dishes in the world. Maine's excellent lobster is shipped around the nation. Boston, one of the oldest seaports in America, makes what the locals consider the finest clam chowder. New England is also famous for fried and steamed clams. The region's large immigrant populations have contributed to a mixture of tastes mingling.

Several factors combine to make the New England economy unique. The region is distant from the geographic center of the country, and is a relatively small region, and relatively densely populated. It historically has been an important center of industrial manufacturing and a supplier of natural resource products, such as granite, lobster, and codfish. New England exports food products, ranging from fish to lobster, cranberries, Maine potatoes, and maple syrup. The service industry is important, including tourism, education, financial and insurance services, plus architectural, building, and construction services.

In the first half of the 20th century, the region underwent a long period of de-industrialization as traditional manufacturing companies relocated to the Midwest, with textile and furniture manufacturing migrating to the South. In the mid-to-late 20th century, an increasing portion of the regional economy included high technology (including computer and electronic equipment manufacturing), military defense industry, finance and insurance services, as well as education and health services. Pacific North West

Includes: Northern California and Northern Nevada, Oregon, and Washington

The Rockies

Includes:

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Northern New Mexico

Great Plains / Mid-West

The South West

The North East / New England The South