1)Give an account of the geographical position of the United States, its advantages and disadvantages. The size of the country, its composition.

American Studies Part I (except: minerals)

The United States of America is the world's third largest country with an area of 9.6 square kilometers, the population — over 300 million people (2007). Most of the country in the central part of North America. It is bordered by Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. Due to its geographical position and administrative division the United States is one of the few fragmented countries in the world. Of the fifty states of the country forty-eight

states are conterminous, or enclosed within one common boundary.

The other two states, Alaska and Hawaii, are located apart from the rest of the country. Alaska is located

in the far northwestern part of North America, bordering western Canada. Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean to the south and west of mainland North America.

The physical geography of the United States is as varied as that of any other country in the world. There are huge forests, large areas of flat, grassy plains, and deserts. An average elevation of about 762 meters masks some great variations. These variations

range from a low of 86 meters below sea level in California to a high of over 6,000 meters above sea level in Alaska.

The people of the United States are descended from many, many different groups of people from around the world. It is a country of immigrants. The first inhabitants came from Asia, crossing the Bering Strait into Alaska during the last Ice Age. Almost 40,000 years later, Spanish adventurers entered what is now the southwestern United States by way of Mexico. From that time, migrations have continued — Europeans, Africans, Asians, and other people from the Americas entering the country to live and work, adding their cultures to that of the nation. The United States is spread over a huge area of the Western Hemisphere. For example, the total distance between the most eastern Florida Key and most western island of Hawaii is 9,418 kilometers. The conterminous United States stretches some 4,664 kilometers

from Maine in the east to California in the west. From the northern border of North Dakota to the southern border of Texas, it is 2,585 kilometers.

It is little wonder that within a country so large there can be found so many different landscapes.

The country can be divided from the point of view of physical geography into nine regions.

These are: (1) the Coastal plains, (2) the Appalachian Highlands, (3) the Interior Plains, (4) the Interior Highlands, (5) the Rocky Mountains, (6) the Intermontane Plateaus and Basins, (7) the Pacific Coastal Ranges, (8) Alaska, and (9) Hawaii.

The Coastal Plains

A lowland area sweeps from Massachusetts to Texas along the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This coastal plain, which extends for more than 3,219 kilometers is divided into two parts — the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Gulf Costal Plain.

The Atlantic Plain follows the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean south from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to the Florida Peninsula. It is narrow in the north but broadens to over 322 kilometers in width toward the south. The coastline is irregular.

Many natural harbours have been created. Some of the more important ones are Massachusetts Bay, New York Bay, Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay, and Long Island Sound. A sound is a long, generally narrow inlet of the sea. There are fewer natural harbours along the southern part of the Atlantic Plain. Sandy beaches are found along much of the shoreline. Mixed forests of conifers and broadleaf deciduous trees are the natural vegetation

of the northern part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The vegetation of the southern part is mostly coniferous forests. Marshes are common and there are many slow-moving rivers crossing the southern plain. The most southern part of the plain includes the

swampy Everglades in Florida. The Gulf Plain is a much wider band of flat land and gently rolling hills. It varies in width from 241 kilometers to about 966 kilometers. At one point, the plain extends far inland to where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River. The Mississippi, the longest river in North America, empties into the Gulf of Mexico in Southern Louisiana.

There it has made a huge delta. This part of the Gulf Coastal Plain is made up of marshes and bayous — a word used to describe the many small, marshy creeks and rivers that flow through the delta area.

The Appalachian Highlands

Just west of the Atlantic Coastal Plain is the Appalachian Highlands. This region takes its name from the Appalachian Mountains. The highlands stretch about 1,931 kilometers

in the United States from northern Maine to central Alabama. They lie in a northeast to southwest direction. In the highlands is the highest peak in the eastern United States — Mount Mitchell in western North Carolina. It rises 2,037 meters above sea level.

The eastern edge of the highlands is known as the Piedmont. This low plateau varies in altitude from 152 to 305 meters above sea level. The land drops sharply from the Piedmont to the plain, creating waterfalls along the fast-moving rivers. West of the Piedmont are the Appalachian Mountains, made up of many low, rounded Peaks clustered into different ranges. They are nearly parallel with the Atlantic coastne. Railroad lines run along the valleys and over the low mountain passes connecting me Atlantic coast with the interior of the country.

As s true of most of the eastern United States, the Appalachian Highlands were part of an area extensive forest — both conifers and deciduous broadleafs. Much of the highlands remained covered by trees today.

The Interior Plains

A huge "plain region" covers the middle of the United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. The region is divided into the generally flat

Central Plains just west of the Appalachian Highlands and the Great Plains which rise gradually westward toward the Rocky Mountains. The Central Plains include lowland parts of central and western Kentucky and Tennessee, the Great Lakes area, and the upper Mississippi and lower Ohio and Missouri river basins. The natural vegetation of this area is prairie grasses. There are areas of forests on the hills and in the river valleys.

West of the river basins, the elevations slowly increase to almost 1,524 meters toward the Rocky Mountains. This is the area of the Great Plains. Many long rivers flow eastward from the Great Plains, emptying into the Mississippi. They flow through large

areas of dry, almost treeless land, once covered with prairie and steppe grasses. The soils very fertile chernozem and a mixture of chernozem and podsolic soils.

The Interior Highlands

Two separate highlands regions rise above the plains in the central United States. These are the Superior Highlands and the Ozark Plateau. Located around Lake Superior, in the northern parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, the Superior Highlands are actually a part of the Canadian Shield. Coniferous forests cover rocky plateaus. There are many lakes among the hills.

The Ozark Plateau is located between the Missouri and Arkansas rivers west of the Mississippi River. The land is gently rolling in places with some rugged mountains in other places.

The Rocky Mountains

West of the Great Plains is the Rocky Mountain region. The Rocky Mountains extend from Canada south to New Mexico and Western Texas. The region occupies an area over 1600 kilometers long. It varies in width between 200 to 600 kilometers.

Like the Appalachian Mountains the Rockies stretch from north to south. The Rocky Mountains, however, are much more rugged and much higher than the Appalachians.

Many peaks are over 3,658 meters high. Plants are greatly affected by altitude. Broadleaf deciduous trees are found at lower elevations with needleleaf conifers higher up.

Mountain tops not covered by snow are capped by tundra grasses and mosses.