Divided Where Landforms Form
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NorthREGIONS OF America Home Sweet Tundra A CONTINENT DIVIDED WHERE LANDFORMS FORM IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Regions_of_NA_FC.indd 1 1/30/17 12:48 PM 2 Americas include two continents (North and South America) and 35 countries? The Big Picture People from Canada, Mexico, and even as When someone says “America,” what do far away as Chile and Argentina also live you think of? Probably the United States in the Americas. The United States shares of America. But did you know that the the continent of North America with Geography is the study of Earth’s landscapes, peo- ple, places, and environments. An environment is the surround- ings in which people, plants, and animals live. u IF YOU’RE THINK- Geographers think ing about where about how people things are in and things relate the world, that’s to where they are geography. located on Earth. r CANADA, OUR neighbor to the north (or east, if you’re in Alaska) is the second- largest country in the world! It’s a little bigger than the United States but has fewer people than the than any other because Canada state of California. country. Canada was a French Bordering three has two official colony before it oceans, Canada languages, English became a has more coastline and French. This is British colony. r MEXICO, OUR neighbor to the south, is about three times the size of Texas. It has just over one-third as many people My Corner as the U.S. Most of the World Mexicans speak Spanish today Can you find the United because Mexico States on this satellite image was once a colony of the Americas? of Spain. Mexico it is today. It spread won its indepen- from what is now dence from Spain California to Texas in 1821. At that and stretched time, Mexico was south through most much bigger than of Central America. regions_n_america_sp1.indd 16 1/30/17 12:51 PM 3 Canada, Mexico, and the seven smaller countries that make up Central America. Some people also consider the 13 island nations in the Caribbean Sea to be a part Alaska of North America. South America contains another 12 countries. Hawaii u THE 48 STATES r YOU CAN that touch each describe where a other are called the place is by giving contiguous United its relative location States. Contiguous (its location in rela- means sharing a tion to someplace common border. else). For example, Alaska and Hawaii Alaska is about are the only states 1,000 miles north- that don’t touch west of the nearest another state state, Washington. of the U.S. This is its relative about 2,400 miles location compared southwest of the to the contiguous nearest point in U.S. Hawaii is California. d THERE ARE continent where seven continents, nobody lives, or large land- except for up masses, on Earth: to 4,500 people North America, working at sci- South America, entific research Africa, Europe, stations there. Asia, Australia, And don’t forget and Antarctica. the penguins! Antarctica is the only u SCIENTISTS THINK between 25,000 that the earliest and 13,000 years Americans arrived ago. After the Ice from Asia by Age, the sea level walking across a rose and North land bridge during America was cut the last Ice Age, off from Asia. regions_n_america_sp1.indd 17 1/30/17 12:51 PM 4 The United States is a big country with many diverse regions. Landforms such as Landform Regions mountains, valleys, and plains (flat lands) Picture the landscape where you live. Are are part of what makes each region distinct there mountains? Hills and valleys? Maybe from other places. you see flat farmland or rocky shorelines. Landforms also help to explain where Mountains u THE ROCKY r THE SIERRA Mountains rise up Nevada is a moun- steeply from the tain range east of Great Plains to the the Central Valley east. The Rockies of California. Its are North America’s name means biggest and “snowy range” in youngest mountain Spanish. More than range, or group of half of California’s mountains. They water supply extend more than u THE APPALACHIANS and wind, in a pro- comes from rivers 3,000 miles from are an old mountain cess called erosion. and streams that New Mexico all range, about four Just to the east of start in the Sierras. the way to Alaska. times older than the the Appalachians is Many peaks reach Rockies. They were a band of foothills over 13,000 feet in once tall, jagged and valleys called elevation. Elevation mountains. Over the Piedmont. The is the height of a time they were Piedmont region place measured worn down and stretches from New from sea level. smoothed by rain Jersey to Alabama. Plateaus l THE GREAT BASIN the Great Basin is is a plateau (area of surrounded on all high plains). It lies sides by mountains between the Rocky and plateaus. There Mountains and the is nowhere for Sierra Nevada. In water to flow out most places, rain of it. Rain that falls that falls on the on the Great Basin land drains into either evaporates or streams, lakes, and flows into lakes in rivers. These rivers the basin, such as eventually flow out the Great Salt Lake. to the ocean. But regions_n_america_sp2.indd 16 1/30/17 12:55 PM 5 people live and how they use the land. Most farmers want to live in the fertile My Corner plains and valleys where crops grow well. of the World What is the most common Mountainous areas are often the last landform where you live? regions to be settled because they are hard to reach and can have harsh climates. Plains and Valleys r THE INTERIOR Plains take up a large area of North America between the Appalachians and the Rockies. The eastern part of the Interior Plains includes flat areas and rolling hills. It once supported lush tallgrass prai- rie, or grassland. u CALIFORNIA’S Now it is mostly Central Valley is farmland where one of the most many staple foods, l THE WESTERN PART important farming like corn and soy- of the Interior Plains regions in the beans, are grown. is called the Great country. Farmers Plains. This area there grow a variety once supported of crops like toma- vast herds of graz- toes, almonds, and ing animals. The grapes. The valley Plains Indians also lies between the lived there. Some Sierra Nevada and scientists believe lower mountains that there used to along the Pacific be between 30 and called the Coastal 60 million American Range. bison, or buffalo, on the North American prairies. r THE COASTAL Plain is a flat area that stretches along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The Coastal Plain supports farms, forests, and cities such as Washington, D.C. regions_n_america_sp2.indd 17 1/30/17 12:55 PM 6 Puget Sound AN INLET IS A SMALL part of a body of water that extends into the shore- line. A sound is a u large, deep ocean EVEN TODAY THERE the river by boat in inlet. Puget Sound are places in the summer and with in the state of U.S. without many snowmobiles over Washington is roads. In remote the ice in winter. one of the best- Alaskan villages, a Houses often face known sounds river can take the the water instead in the U.S. place of a highway. of a street. Washington People travel on State’s capital city, Olympia, Great and its largest Salt Lake city, Seattle, both lie on Puget Sound. THE GREAT SALT the dry Utah air, Lake is the largest but the salt stays lake west of the behind. The lake Continental Mississippi River. is four to five The lake is salty times saltier than Divide because rain the ocean. It’s washes salt from very easy to float RAIN THAT FALLS the soil into the in, but don’t get east of this line lake. The water that salty water flows into rivers evaporates into in your eyes! that empty into the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean, or Arctic Ocean. Rain that falls west of this line flows into other rivers. They drain to the Great Basin or the Pacific Ocean. Bodies of Water Imagine a time before airplanes, cars, trains, and even paved roads. How would you get around? Travel overland on dirt roads by foot or horse-drawn wagon would be slow and difficult. What if the roads often grew up along major water bodies. were muddy or covered in snow? In bad Nearly four out of every ten people in the weather, travel could be nearly impossible. U.S. live in a county that touches the coast. Before paved roads, the easiest and often Many more live along rivers and lakes. Can quickest way to move people and goods was you think of other reasons why people usually by boat. As a result, cities and towns might want to live near a body of water? regions_n_america_sp3.indd 16 1/30/17 12:58 PM 7 Great Lakes THE FIVE GREAT to each other and Lakes – Superior, then to the St. Michigan, Huron, Lawrence River. Erie, and Ontario This forms an – are among the important inland world’s largest waterway linking freshwater lakes. the Midwest to the The lakes connect Atlantic Ocean. d RAIN THAT FALLS that flow into a on a watershed larger river are flows into small called tributaries. streams, then big- A large river and ger streams, then its tributaries are Mississippi River into a river.