THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES (NORTH AMERICA)

The United States has an area of 9372571 square kilometers. The country excluding Alaska and Hawaii, can subdivided into seven major land regions. These regions are; The Appalachian highlands, the coastal lowlands, the interior plains, the Ozark-Ouachita highlands, the rocky mountains, the western plateaus basins and ranges and the pacific ranges and lowlands. The Appalachian highlands. Extended from the northern tip of Maine southwestward to Alabama. This ragged region has many mountain ranges. The white mountains and the green mountains of northern new England are old mountains, won down but craggy in some places. Southern New England consists mostly of hilly land. New England’s chief river is the Connecticut. The Adirondack upland of northern New York includes mountains and many beautiful lakes. The coastal lowlands. Extended from southern Maine across the eastern and southern United States to eastern Texas. Forests of hickory, oak, pine and other trees are common throughout the lowlands. The region has three subdivisions; the piedmont, the Atlantic coastal plain and the gulf coastal plain. The interior plains. Occupy a huge expanse of land that stretches from the Appalachian highlands in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Glaciers covered much of the region during the ice age. They stripped the topsoil from parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and carved out thousands of lakes, today much of this area is heavily forested. Further, south in parts of Illinois, in Indiana, lowa and Ohio, the glaciers flattered the land and deposited rich soil ideal for growing crops. The plains slope gradually upward from east to west and get progressively drier. The Ozark-Ouachita highlands. Rise up between the interior plains and coastal lowlands. The highlands form a scenic landscape in southern Missouri, northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The region is named for the Ozark Plateau and the Ouachita mountains. Rivers and streams have cut deep gorges through the rugged highland terrain. The highlands include forested hills, artificial lakes and many underground caves and gushing springs. The Rocky Mountains. Form the largest mountain system in North America. They extend from northern Alaska, through Canada and western United States to northern New Mexico.