North America is the third largest continent located between the Arctic Ocean to the north and the Isthmus of Panama to the south. It has four major physical divisions - the Western Cordilleras along the western coast consisting of mountain ranges like the Rockies, the Canadian Shield north of the Great Lakes containing the Hudson Bay, the Appalachian Mountains in the east, and the Central Lowlands containing fertile prairies between the mountain ranges. North America includes three large countries - Canada, the United States, and Mexico as well as other smaller nations in Central America.

1. North America – Location
and Physical Features.

2. Seven Continents:
1. Asia
2. Africa
3. North America
4. South America
5. Antarctica
6. Europe
7. Australia
NORTH AMERICA :
• New world : Discovered in the late 15th century.
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3. This is a slide title
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4. • North America was discovered by Christopher Columbus In
1492 while trying to find a new sea route to India.
• He had mistaken it as India, but that was Caribbean Islands
(West Indies).
• Later in 1507, Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer sailed to New
world.
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5. LOCATION
• Area, 24.25 million sq km.
• America is the 3rd largest continent in the world.
• It is eight times the size of India.
• Continents extents from 7 degree North to 84 degree North
latitudes and 53 degree West to 165 degree West longitudes.
• The continent lies completely in the Northern and Western
hemisphere.
• North- south extent is about 8500 km.
• East-West extent is about 6400 km.
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6. • A major part of Continent lies in Temperate region i.e. between
the Tropic of Cancer and Arctic circle.
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7. North America is surrounded by the following:
• North – Arctic ocean
• West – Pacific Ocean
• East – Atlantic Ocean.
• South – Isthmus of Panama.
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8. • (North- west) – Bering Strait separates North America from Asia
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9. • Greenland is the Largest island
under the administration of
Denmark.
• Other islands are Newfoundland
in Atlantic Ocean and Aleutian
Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
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10. • Important Bays and Gulfs:
1. Hudson Bay
2. Gulf of Mexico
3. Gulf of California.
Off the southern coast lie the
Caribbean sea and the West Indies
Group Of Islands.
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11. Political divisions
• North America consists of three large countries and several small
ones.
1. Canada 2. United States of America 3. Mexico.
• The countries South of Mexico are together referred as a “
Central America”
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12. Physical Divisions
• North America can be
divided into Four major physical
Divisions :
1. The Western Cordilleras
2. The Canadian Shields.
3. The Appalachian Mountains/
Eastern Highlands.
4. Central Plains.
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13. The Western Cordilleras
• Cordillera is a Spanish word which means a chain of parallel
mountain ranges.
• The Western Cordilleras extents along the western side or
coast of North America, from Alaska to Panama. (about 6500
km).
• The Rockies form the Eastern chain of the Western Cordillera.
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14. Other ranges are:
1. The Alaska Range is to the North and it has the highest peak that
is “ Mount McKinley. (6194m).
2. The central part is occupied by Cascade Range.
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15. 3. The southern part is occupied by the coastal range- The sierra
Nevada and the Sierra Madre.
• PLATEAU
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16. Intermontane Plateaus lie in between these ranges. They are:
1. The Alaska Plateaus 2. The Columbia Plateaus 3. The Great
Basin
4. The Colorado Plateau and the Mexican Plateaus.
• The Great Basin is the largest Inter-Montane
Plateau of North America.
• The Grand Canyon of Colorado is the deepest
of its kind(about 446 km long,1600 m deep and
6 to 29 km wide).
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17. The Canadian Shield
• The region around the Hudson Bay is
occupied by the Canadian Shields or
Laurentian Shield.
• During the Ice age, the shield area
was entirely Covered with glaciers.
• The Canadian shields has rich deposits of Nickle, gold, silver and
copper.
• The region also has a number of lakes – Superior, Huron, Erie and
Ontario and Michigan which forms the Southern boundary of the
Canadian shield.
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18. • The other lakes are Winnipeg, Great Bear and the Great Slave.
• The famous Niagara Falls between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario
is also located in this region.
• The Niagara Falls form the international boundary between
Canada and USA.
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19. THE APPALACGIAN MOUNTAINS
• Eastern Highlands.
• The average height is about 1500 m.
• The Appalachians stresses from
Newfoundland in the north to Atlanta in
The South.
• Rich deposit of coal, copper, lead,
Iron ore, zinc, limestone and granite.
CENTRAL LOWLANDS
The central lowlands are found between
the western cordilleras and the eastern
highlands.
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20. • It is a very fertile lowland and is called the prairies.
• The plain extents between the delta of River Mackenzie near
the Arctic Ocean in the north to the coast of Gulf of Mexico in
the south.
• The North-South extents is about 6000 km whereas the east-
west is about 2000 km.
Drainage
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