North American geography: landforms, maps, culture

1. North America World Geography text supplement Chap. 5 (to accompany “Glossary” worksheet) Copyright, Concept & Creation: Geetesh Bajaj

2. During what eras do lower sea levels expose a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska?

4. Beringia land bridge

5. Fish, birds, animals and insects migrated back and forth across this bridge into the ice-free area of the Yukon known as eastern Beringia. Nomadic humans migrated across the land bridge following animal herds and entered the Yukon about 24,000 years ago.

7. About 40 species of large mammals became extinct in North America, including dire wolf, mammoths, mastodons and giant beavers. Two hypotheses for this wave of extinction are human over-hunting and climate change. 12,000 - 9,000 BP Where Did They Go?

8. North America landforms Name six that are in both the United States and Canada

9. Appalachians A vast system of North American mountains, partly in Canada, but mostly in the United States, extending as a zone, from 100 to 300 miles wide, running from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 1500 miles south-westward to central Alabama in the United States.

10. Appalachians More than 480 million years ago, the first of several mountain building plate collisions culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangea with the Appalachians near the center.

11. Folded Appalachian Mts. 1993 N Blue Mts. Tuscarora Mts. Jacks Mts. Tussey Mts. Bald Eagle Mts. Lewistown South Mts. Juniata R.

12. Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield, also known as the Precambrian Shield or Laurentian Plateau, covers about half of Canada as well as most of Greenland and part of the northern United States; an area of 1.7 million square miles.

13. Precambrian rocks exposed on Earth's surface are often highly weathered. This portion of the Canadian Shield is about 2.5 billion years old.

14. Great Plains The broad expanse of prairie which lies east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States of America and Canada.

16. Mississippi River The Mississippi drains most of the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. It runs through two states — Minnesota and Louisiana — and was used to define the borders of eight states (the river has since shifted) — Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi — before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstream from New Orleans.

17. Rocky Mountains Commonly defined to stretch from the Liard River in British Columbia, down to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The mountains can also be considered to run to Alaska or Mexico, but usually those mountains are considered to be part of the entire American cordillera, rather than part of the Rockies.

18. Rocky Mountain September

19. Continental Divide A series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico that forms the watershed of North America. Most of it runs along peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The sign above is in Wyoming.

20. Independence Pass – a route through the range

21. They are the series of mountain ranges that stretch along west coast of North America from Alaska to Mexico. They are also known as the Pacific Cordillera . Pacific Coast Ranges Canadian Cordilleras

22. The range runs parallel to the Pacific coasts of California, Washington, and Oregon for 4,500 miles in the United States and extend north into Canada for about 1,000 miles and south into Mexico for about 800 miles.

23. Climate map List six climate zones that the United States (including Alaska) and Canada share.

24. Because of the Coriolis Effect, these winds generally blow from southwest to northeast on the North American continent The westerlies are the prevailing winds in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude, blowing from the high pressure area in the horse latitudes towards the poles.

25. Great Lakes The Great Lakes

26. St. Lawrence Seaway

27. The Saint Lawrence Seaway is the system of canals that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes as far as Lake Superior. The Welland Canal (above) connects Lakes Erie and Ontario, bypassing the Niagara Falls on the Niagara River.

28. Niagara Falls

29. Canal and dam locks At right, a Great Lakes steamer passes through a series of locks to go from one Great Lakes to another.

31. All of the boat traffic that flows into or out of Lake Superior must move through the locks of the St. Mary's River, at Sault Ste. Marie.

33. Everglades Florida Everglades

34. Everglades National Park

35. Florida Everglades A subtropical marshland located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida . Much modified by agricultural development in central and southern Florida, the Everglades is the southern half of a large watershed arising in the vicinity of Orlando known as the Kissimmee River system.