North America includes 23 independent countries as well as island territories in the Caribbean Sea. Canada, the United States, and Mexico are the largest and most populated countries. Central America connects North America to South America and includes 7 countries. The continent has diverse geographic features like mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains and Appalachians, plains, forests, and coastal regions.

1. North America

4. Snow cover

5. Though broadleaf temperate forests are found along the Gulf Coast, a substantial amount of southern pine forest are found in Southeastern United States as well.

6. Population map Which part of the United States is the most heavily populated?

7. Night Lights Based upon satellite measurements of city lights, this image is a map of the urban population density of North America. Most major cities are in level areas along an ocean, bay, large lake, or navigable river .

10. Arkansas River

11. Churchill River

12. Colorado River

13. Columbia River

14. Frazer River

15. Mackenzie River

16. Mississippi River

17. Mississippi River Drainage Basin

18. 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.

20. Missouri River

21. Ohio River

22. Red River

23. Rio Grande

24. Saint Lawrence River

25. St. Lawrence Seaway

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

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.

29. 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.

30. Yukon River

31. 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.

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

33. 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.

35. Rocky Mountain September

36. 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.

37. 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

38. 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.

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

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

42. Great Plains In the Prairies ecozone, rivers and streams are slow moving, usually with muddy bottoms. There are few lakes, but many marshes and small shallow ponds.

45. prairie The prairie biome is a plant community dominated by grasses and non-grassy herbs with some woody shrubs and occasional trees.

46. Temperate grasslands are characterized by hot summers and cold winters. Evaporation rate is high, so little rain makes it into the rich soil. Mid-grass prairie near Manhattan, Kansas Great Plains grasslands

47. Great Lakes The Great Lakes

48. Great Lakes 1991 L. Michigan L. Superior L. Huron L. Erie L. Ontario N Milwaukee Chicago Detroit Convection Lake Effect

50. Everglades Florida Everglades

51. Everglades National Park

52. 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.

53. Alaska’s Denali The Alaskan denali is a treeless tundra with only mosses and lichen vegetation in the summer, and covered with snow the rest of the year.

54. Denali glaciers At the left-center of the picture is North America's highest peak, the 20,320 foot summit of Mt. McKinley. It's also known as Denali (the Great One). To the west is Mt. Forager (17,400 ft), and in the foreground are several of the dozens of large glaciers emanating from the Alaska Range. This unusually clear wintertime aerial photo shows a portion of the Alaska Range in south central Alaska.

55. Alaska wildlife The Brown Bear (right) lives throughout the North American continent, particularly in the colder climes. Arctic birds converge along the islands

56. The southern part of the Denali tundra gives way to the hardy trees of the taiga

57. Taiga (or Boreal Forests) represent the largest terrestrial biome. Occurring between 50 ° and 60 ° north latitudes, boreal forests can be found in the broad belt of Eurasia and North America. At left is the hardy jack pine species common in the poor, sandy soils, mostly in Canada. Taiga

58. Moose moose

59. Central America and the Caribbean Islands are also part of North America

60. Rain forest Tropical rain forests are mainly the product of climatic interactions, particularly temperature and rainfall. They occur where monthly temperature of 20 - 28 ° C combines with an annual rainfall of 1.5 -10m, evenly distributed throughout the year.

61. Central American rain forest The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of year-round warmth with an annual average of 50- 260” of rain. These forests belong to the tropical wet climate group .

62. drawing