Physical Features of the United States and Canada

1. Physical Features of the United States and Canada Chapter 7

2. Appalachian Mountains (Blue Ridge, Catskill, and Green Mountains • New Foundland to Alabama • Highest Point—Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (North Carolina) • Formed during the collision of North America and Africa over 300+ million years ago

3. Piedmont • Plateau region stretching from New Jersey to Alabama • 80,000 square miles and up to 300 miles wide • Low, rolling hills ranging from 200 to 1,000 feet high • Remnant of several ancient mountain ranges

4. Rocky Mountains • 3,000 + miles long (British Colombia to New Mexico) • Highest point—Mount Elbert in Colorado at 14,440 feet high • Formed 76 million years ago by colliding plates (subduction)

5. Mount McKinley • Alaska (Alaska Range) • Highest mountain in the North America at 20,320 feet high • Subduction of the Pacific plate underneath the North American plate

6. Sierra Nevada Mountains • 400 miles long and 70 miles wide • Highest point: Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet (highest point in contiguous US) • Began to form about 4 millions years ago

7. Cascade Range • British Colombia to California • Part of Pacific Ring of Fire • Highest point: Mount Rainier at 14,411 ft • Series of volcanoes

8. Death Valley • Located in the Mojave Desert • Lowest, driest, and hottest area in the United States • 282 feet below sea level • Highest recorded temperature: 134° F

9. Great Plains • Sub-region of the interior plains • South-central Canada into Texas and Mexico • 501,933 sq mi • Prairie, steppe, and grassland

10. Interior Plains • Deposits from the eroding Rocky Mountains • Many lakes formed by glaciers during the last ice age. • Rolling hills, many river systems, and productive soils

11. Mississippi River • Largest river system in the United States • 2,320 miles long • Flows into Gulf of Mexico

12. Great Lakes • Freshwater lakes • 80,545 sq miles-surface • Created from glacial retreat • 21% of Earth’s surface freshwater

13. Canadian Shield • Arc of ancient rock covered by a thin layer of soil • Scraped by glaciers leaving a rough rocky landscape • 8,000,000 sq km • Originally a very mountainous area • Overtime, erosion has caused the area to become flat.

14. Continental Divide • Divides North America’s major river systems into those flowing eastward and those flowing westward.

15. Pacific Ring of Fire (25,000 miles) • Tectonically active region around the edges of the Pacific. • 75% of the world’s volcanoes and 90% of the world’s earthquakes

16. Tectonic Plates

17. Rio Grande • Natural boundary between Mexico and the US • 1,896 miles long • 182,200 sq mi watershed

18. Lake Okeechobee • Lake Okeechobee is the largest freshwater lake in Florida • 730 square miles • 9 feet deep

19. Colorado River • 1,450 miles long • Watershed is 246,000 sq mi • Flows west out of the Rocky Mountains and empties into the Gulf of California

20. Grand Canyon • Steep-sided canyon • Created by plate tectonics and the Colorado River • 277 miles long • Up to 19 miles wide • 6,000 feet deep

21. Ohio River • Largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River • 981 miles long • 189,422 sq mi drainage basin

22. Missouri River • Tributary of the Mississippi River • Longest river in North America at 2,540 miles long • Important for trade and transportation

23. Bering Strait • Strait—narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. • Sea strait between Russia and Alaska • 53 miles wide • 98—160 feet deep

24. Hudson Bay • Northeastern Canada • 470,000 sq mi—2nd largest in the world. • 330 ft deep • Connected to Arctic and Atlantic Ocean Ice beginning to form in early November.