Download - Physical Regions of North Amercia
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PHYSICAL REGIONS OF NORTH AMERICA
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MAP
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THE APPALACHIAN
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Made of many different mountain ranges
• Mountains as old as 300,000,000 years
• Relatively low mountain ranges with rolling mountains and hills because of erosion
• Contains fertile plateaus and river valleys
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CLIMATE
• Effected by two oceans
• The Labrador current brings cold water south from the Arctic and causes freezing during the winter
• The Gulf Stream brings warm water north from the Caribbean
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VEGETATION
• Was heavily forested
• Had Coniferous and Deciduous trees that can survive in the unproductive soil
• Soil was much more productive on the plateaus and in huge river valley
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Fishing in isolated settlements
• Mining
• Lumbering
• Farming
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Mountain removal coal mines
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THE COASTAL PLAINS
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Average elevation of 200m above sea level
• Surface is mostly flat or gently rolling
• More then half is less than 30m above sea level
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CLIMATE
• The North has very cold winters and very hot, humid summers
• The South has a sub-tropical climate and mild to warm winters
• Subject to hurricanes, occurring between late summer and early winter
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VEGETATION
• The soils are mainly very sandy
• The natural , vegetation adapted to the sandy soil
• Lush jungles have developed in some areas like Mexico
• The original vegetation of the area was pine forests
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Tourism and recreation
• Shipping at ports
• Commercial fishing
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Rapidly growing population
• Industrial development
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THE GREAT LAKES
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Has rolling hills, mainly creat by glaciation
• Flat plains are broken by hills and deep river valleys
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CLIMATE
• Essentially a humid continental climate
• It is humid because of the presence of the Great Lakes
• The lakes can store heat and make winters warmer and can store coolness and make summers cooler
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VEGETATION
• Has very fertile soil
• Once had Canada's largest broad-leafed forests
• In the Great Lakes portion, they had maple, beech, hickory, and black walnut trees
• Elsewhere in the region, the vegetation was mixed forests of both deciduous and conifers.
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Farming
• Tourism from their natural features
• Manufacturing
• Lumbering
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Water pollution
• Invasion alien species
• New chemical contaminants
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THE INTERIOR PLAINS
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TOPOGRAPHY
• The US section is divided into Central Lowland and the Great Plains
• The Great Plains has a elevation of 600 to 1500m above sea level
• In Canada, the plains are generally gently rolling, gradually sloping down from west to east
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CLIMATE
• Is a continental climate, affected by its location in the heart of the continent
• Has extreme climate with long, hot summers and cold winters
• Farther North has arctic climate with extremely cold winters and cool summers
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VEGETATION
• Originally was covered with mixed deciduous trees and scattered evergreens in the east of Mississippi
• In the Canadian prairie, there's grassland and trees only grown in river valleys
• In the North, boreal forest grows and gradually becomes tundra
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Agriculture
• Mining
• Industry
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Farm pollution seeping into the ground and/or running off into the river and lakes system
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THE CANADIAN SHIELD
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Average elevation at about 100m above sea level in the North, 500m in the South
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CLIMATE
• Varies greatly
• Colder winter in the North
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VEGETATION
• Boreal forests cover most of the shield
• Some deciduous trees such as poplars and white bitches
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Mining metals and minerals
• Paper manufacturing
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Igneous rocks have little capacity to neutralize acid rain from power plants
• Increased acidity of lakes levels that fish can't tolerate
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WESTERN CORDILLERA
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TOPOGRAPHY
• New mountains, not yet worn down by erosion
• Many different mountain ranges
• All rivers flow east
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CLIMATE
• Maritime climate
• Generally moist and mild
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VEGETATION
• Very old and immense evergreens
• Rain forest
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Farming
• Mining
• Tourism
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Acid rain
• Air pollution
• Nuclear disasters
• Distracting of rain forest
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THE INTERMOUNTAIN REGION
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Stretches from northern Alaska through the interior of BC then to Mexico
• Broad spectrum of land
• Has high plateaus and isolated mountain ranges and deserts
• Many streams and rivers
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CLIMATE
• Winters can be cool and wet or hot and dry depending on its region
• In the south, winters and short and warm
• In the north, winters are moist and summers are hot and dry
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VEGETATION
• Ranges between sparse grasslands to plants that can survive in semi desert or desert conditions
• Higher areas are covered in pine forests
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Mining
• Cattle ranching
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Threatened and endangered species
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THE ARCTIC REGION
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TOPOGRAPHY
• Very flat near the ocean
• The mountains far north are covered in glaciers
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CLIMATE
• Climate is very severe since it's so far from the equator
• Winters lasts 10 months
• Summer is very short and not very warm
• Because of the little precipitation, the arctic is technically a desert
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VEGETATION
• Very few life forms beyond lichen
• Trees cannot grow on the tundra
• Smaller shrubs, mosses, and lichens are the only thing that can grow
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ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
• Extraction of petroleum, mineral, oil and natural gas
• Fishing
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
• Climate change
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
• HowStuffWorks.com, . "The Appalachian ." HowStuffWorks. (2008): 1. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. <http://geography.howstuffworks.com/united-states/the-appalachians.htm>.
• "Great Lakes." Environment Canada. (2013): n. page. Print. <http://www.ec.gc.ca/grandslacs-greatlakes/default.asp?lang=En&n=70283230-1>.
• "The Interior Plains." Weebly. n. page. Print. <http://interiorplains.weebly.com/economic-activities.html>.
• "Environment Issues." Yahoo.Answers. 2010. Print. <http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100505173826AAUIqepo>.
• "Geography of Canada." Wikipedia. 2014. Print. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Canada#Current_environmental_issues>.
• "Arctic Facts." Arctic. 2014. Print. <http://arctic.ru/arctic-facts>.
• "Great Lakes Region." Wikipedia. 2014. Print. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_region_(North_America)>.