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Regional Geography of North America: Background Notes

Regional Geography of North America: Background Notes. North America is a continent of extremely varied landscapes which in turn impacts on the way of life for the people living its different regions. Region: is an area with similar characteristics (ex. landscape or economic activities)

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Regional Geography of North America: Background Notes

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  1. Regional Geography of North America: Background Notes

  2. North America is a continent of extremely varied landscapes which in turn impacts on the way of life for the people living its different regions. • Region: is an area with similar characteristics (ex. landscape or economic activities) • In general, there are 8 major geographic regions of North America: Appalachian Canadian Shield Coastal Plains Western Cordillera Interior Plains Intermountain Region Arctic Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands

  3. Topography: the shape of the land • In order to understand how these regions came to be, we must look at the structure of the earth itself. • The Earth: is 4.5 billion years old Crust Mantle Core

  4. Plate Tectonics • Core: centre of the earth, it is hot and solid • Mantle: is under the crust and is made up or liquid rock (magma) • Crust: a thin layer (5-35 km thick) that is broken into pieces (plates) • The magma swirls around and causes the plates to move creating changes in the earth’s surface. The swirling magma is caused by forces known as tectonics.

  5. Fold Mountains • When two plates are pushed together over time the rock in the crust crumples to create fold mountains (ex. Rocky Mountains)

  6. Volcanic Mountains • Sometimes the crust breaks while it is folding and the magma comes up onto the earth’s surface, creating a volcano. Over time this creates volcanic mountains. (ex. Coast Mountains)

  7. Glaciation • Glaciation: a process in which the land is covered in a thick moving body of ice • In addition to the tectonic forces, Ice Ages have also shaped the topography (landscape) of North America. • Glaciers (huge sheets of ice weighing millions of tonnes) have advanced and retreated repeatedly throughout history carving out valleys and hills and exposing mineral deposits.

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